WI Teachers of the Year

Meet the 2024-25 Teachers of the Year

Wisconsin’s five Teachers of the Year for the 2024-25 school year are

Ana Celia Báez, South Division High School, Milwaukee Public Schools: Ana is of Puerto Rican descent and was raised on the East side of Milwaukee. She is a proud product of Milwaukee Public Schools. Báez has been a Bilingual School Counselor at South Division High school for the last 11 years. She earned a bachelor's degree in Human Development and Family Studies with a certificate in Latino Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a PEOPLE Program Scholar and McNair Scholar. Báez continued her studies at UW-Madison, earning a Masters in Counseling Psychology/Emphasis on School Counseling. While at UW, she was one of nine co-founders of the Kappa Gamma Chapter of Sigma Lambda Gamma, the fastest-growing Latina-based multicultural sorority. Báez is passionate about children-her students and being a Titi (Aunt) to her nieces and nephews. She sees herself in her students, her lived experiences with her late mother, her brothers Juan A and Juan M, navigating poverty, language barriers and success drives her desire to be an agent of hope. She works to ensure students like herself, with similar experiences and backgrounds, have the same, if not more opportunities than she did. In fall of 2013 she began her journey to serve her community as the only bilingual/Spanish speaking School Counselor at South Division High School with MPS. Báez has worked hard to establish an in-house scholarship supporting those who are unable to complete the FAFSA. She was able to award the first two scholarships in Spring of 2023 and 2024. In 2017 Ana was highlighted as 1 of Wisconsin's Most Influential Latinos by Madison 365. She was also recently selected as a 2024 Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Teacher Fellow. Báez is a member of the Wisconsin School Counselor Association and serves as Recording Secretary on the Wisconsin Association for Bilingual Education Board.

Bethany Counard, West De Pere Middle School, School District of West De Pere : Bethany graduated from St. Norbert college in 2000 with her Bachelor’s degree in both mathematics and English, with a certification to teach grades six through twelve. After briefly teaching math, she taught Language Arts in grades nine through twelve in the Green Bay Area Public School District for seventeen years. Within that time, she also earned her Master’s degree in Education from Viterbo College in 2011. Since 2018, she has been teaching in her community of West De Pere where she lives with her husband and three daughters. Teaching eighth grade English Language Arts at West De Pere Middle School, I strive to build relationships and create connections through classroom activities and to help students see the relevance of what they are learning in their lives and their communities. She is also the advisor for the National Junior Honor Society. As a group, the students look for ways to serve their school, neighborhoods, and communities. Additionally, she is a volleyball coach for both the Middle School and the local volleyball club, where I hope to instill a spirit of teamwork both on and off the court. She approaches teaching with the same sense of teamwork, knowing she is just one piece of a much bigger picture of education. Collaboration with her team, building coworkers, and colleagues across the profession is something which she values. She believes these qualities of connection, service, and teamwork are important, not only in our schools, but also in the greater community.

Brian Counselman, Malcolm Shabazz City High School, Madison Metropolitan School District: Brian Counselman has been teaching at Malcolm Shabazz City High School for the past seven years. Prior to that, Brian taught at Eagle Rock School (Estes Park, CO), Madison West Night School (Madison, WI), Alternative Education Resource Options (AERO) (Madison, WI), and Capital High (Madison, WI). This work has instilled a love and value for thinking about school differently and engaging students in authentic learning opportunities outside of the four walls of a classroom. Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary education biology, broadfield science, and English as a second language (ESL) from University of Wisconsin - Madison as well as a Master’s in Experiential Education from UW - La Crosse. Now serving as a science teacher, as well as project based learning (PBL) coordinator at Shabazz, Brian works to offer students opportunities to ‘do the doing’ of education. Brian’s hope, passion, and motivation as an educator is to expand the classroom (literally and metaphorically) to incorporate the issues, spaces, people, and experiences in our larger community so that students can engage with authentic problems and solutions as they exist in the real world. Brian is passionate about the outdoors and facilitates many outdoor adventure based opportunities for students to not only engage with nature in new ways, but also build community differently. Through honoring social and emotional growth, authentic community building, and real community experiences we are creating spaces where students feel safe, seen, heard, and loved in the classroom. Put most simply; how school feels matters.

Sarah Krajewski, Cambridge Elementary School, School District of Cambridge: Sarah Krajewski is an art educator focused on encouraging students to express their creativity while building self and social awareness. Sarah is a published author and illustrator with her book “Exactly You: The Shape of Your Feelings” and a visual artist. Sarah has been teaching for 13 years, 9 years at Cambridge Elementary (4K-5th Grade) and 4 years at Fontana Joint 8 School (4K-8th Grade). Sarah has connected artists and educators all over the world through her work with The Art of Education University where she led meaningful conversations and art-making through Instagram Live Chats, written over 60 articles, and led professional development focused on SEL and mindful art education practices. She has been the keynote speaker at Art Education Association Conferences for Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin and presented at National Art Education Association Conferences. She was 2019 Wisconsin Art Teacher of the Year and served on the WAEA Board as Youth Art Month Chair. Sarah is the coach of the CES Art Club, composed of 4th and 5th graders that create collaborative school-wide art projects and help run the school’s annual Art Show. Sarah’s Art Shows are a highlight of the school year, boasting thousands of student artworks on display, local food trucks, a petting zoo, a glowing blacklight gallery, art scavenger hunt, and a local community marketplace. Each art class, Sarah’s students recite a mantra, with corresponding motions- “My Mantra. I am Positive. I am Creative. I am Mindful. I am Amazing. I am an Artist.”

Rachel Sauvola, New Richmond High School, School District of New Richmond: Rachel Sauvola, New Richmond Agriscience Instructor, peaks students’ interests in the world around them, teases out reluctant learners with her storytelling skills, and masterfully makes learning come alive. A firm believer in empowering students to be the captains of their own learning, Rachel fosters an environment where students plan their own learning projects, seek out new experiences based on their inquiries, express their knowledge through different modalities and through it all are free to embrace their own human struggles while she supports them. Guiding students through managing an animal learning center, aquaculture facility, greenhouse and school farm, which puts food directly into the lunch line, Rachel pushes her students to take inquiry-based learning even further. Students master the art of livestock husbandry, learn record keeping, communication and problem solving, all while helping educate the next generation of consumers. Community volunteers help with chores after seeing the impact Rachel has in the community. The school farm, called the SOAR Center, strives to educate all visitors, including those from other states and other countries. Welcoming preservice teachers to observe, hosting student teachers, and mentoring beginning instructors are extras that Rachel has been dedicated to for many years. Teaching state and national professional development workshops about a variety of topics, workshop attendees take what they have learned back to their schools and students to perpetuate Rachel’s influence on agricultural education as a whole. At her core, Rachel is a lifelong learner, engaging educator, community collaborator and national champion of agricultural education.