Art teacher named state's best educator

Oklahoma's top teacher once risked her life to save her students as a hallway crumbled around them.

Becky Oglesby doesn't consider herself a hero. Just an ordinary person trying to do extraordinary things.

Like Batman.

Oglesby, 30, teaches art at Ranchwood Elementary School in Yukon, where she is known as the "Batman Teacher" for her love of the Caped Crusader.

She was 8 when she started collecting Batman memorabilia.

"As I got older it became more than something I collected. It became a personal philosophy," she said Tuesday after being named 2019 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year.

"Batman was just an ordinary person with no superpowers, but he chose to make a difference. And I think it's a choice to make a difference in the world around you, and I aspire to be like that."

Oglesby made a difference in the lives of her first-graders on May 20, 2013, the day an EF5 tornado tore through portions of southwest Oklahoma City and cut a deadly path through Moore, killing 25 people.

Seven of those victims died inside Plaza Towers Elementary School, which was demolished.

Oglesby was a second-year teacher at Plaza Towers who was "just getting my legs underneath me and that day came."

"Our tornado precaution was to be in a hallway and that hall was crumbling, so I moved them from that hall where we were sitting back into this corner," she recalled.

"I huddled them as close together as I could and put me on top of them to kind of shield them from what was happening around us. I, honestly, in the midst of it did not think we were going to come out the other side."

That experience changed the way she approached her profession.

"I think just understanding that you can't teach reading until you've addressed other issues," she said. "You've got to be there. They've got to feel safe. They've got to feel secure.

"I think those are things we kind of take for granted. We do fire drills and tornado drills and, yes, we attend to kids' safety. But until you really make a child feel safe, that learning's not going to unfold the way it should."

Oglesby was one of 12 finalists for the state award. She was selected by a panel of more than 20 judges.

Beginning July 1, 2019, she will serve as Oklahoma's teacher ambassador for a full year, traveling the state encouraging others to become or remain teachers.

"In my opinion it was a given because she's just such a fantastic, heartfelt, excellent teacher," Yukon Public Schools Superintendent Jason Simeroth said. "She teaches science and math in art class. Kids love her. She just represents everything positive about education."

State schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who announced the winner during a ceremony at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City, praised Oglesby's creative teaching style, her optimism and her passion for education, calling her a "model of excellence for Oklahoma."

"Becky is a teacher who does not falter, no matter the circumstances," Hofmeister said. "She demonstrates compassion and courage, and treasures her students, never failing to celebrate the individuality of each one.

"Often, our teachers are literal heroes. Becky Oglesby is proof of that."

Other finalists were: Catherine Adams (Piedmont Public Schools); Natalie Fielden (Sapulpa); Shari Gateley (Putnam City); Amy Greenhaw (Jenks); Carol Hunsperger (Grove); Teresa Lansford (Norman); Jenny Morphis (Hilldale); Warren Neff (Bartlesville); Jessica Robinson (Altus Public Schools); Michelle Shelton (Noble); and Jannean Thompson (Berryhill).