UW–Madison’s School of Education is honoring recipients of its 2024 Rockwell Awards and the winner of this year’s Lois Gadd Nemec Elementary Education Award during a Nov. 9 celebration on campus.
The Rockwell Awards are made possible thanks to a generous gift from Roland and Ruth Rockwell. These honors recognize exemplary teachers and other school professionals who mentor and provide high-quality field experiences to UW–Madison students who are preparing to work in schools. Recipients of these awards receive $1,000 each for their significant contribution to UW–Madison’s vital field experience program.
The 2024 Rockwell Award winners are:
- Ben Jaeger, band teacher at Madison’s Vel Phillips Memorial High School
- Rachel Schramm, art teacher at Madison’s Malcolm Shabazz City High School
- Michelle Blevins, third grade teacher at Madison’s Marquette Elementary School
- Dave Ropa, seventh grade science teacher at Madison’s Spring Harbor Middle School
“We are beyond grateful for the tireless efforts of these four educators in supporting the professional growth of our UW-Madison teacher candidates,” says Thomas Owenby, the School of Education’s associate dean for teacher education. “Their expertise and mentorship have played an instrumental role in nurturing the next generation of Wisconsin teachers.”
The School will also be honoring Andreal Davis with the 2024 Lois Gadd Nemec Elementary Education Award, which recognizes an outstanding alumnus of the Elementary Education program. Davis earned an undergraduate degree in elementary education and a master’s in curriculum and instruction, with an emphasis on reading instruction. Davis is recognized as a shining light in the Madison educational community who has served as an exemplary teacher at Lincoln Elementary School. She also is the founder and director of the African-American Ethnic Academy, the Culturally Responsive Practices Coordinator with the Department of Public Instruction and Cooperative Educational Services Association, and most recently the leader of the Black Education Conference.
Combining all of those experiences, Davis collaboratively created a professional development model called Cultural Practices that are Relevant (CPR) that promotes and supports Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching. As Department of Curriculum and Instruction faculty members Carl Grant and Mary Louise Gomez shared in their nomination letter, “The faculty saw in Ms. Davis an individual committed to — in the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea — taking ideas such as culturally relevant teaching, multicultural education, and parent involvement … and infused them into her school community, successfully implementing them.”
In addition to recognizing these outstanding educators, the School of Education will also be hosting a series of workshops on Nov. 9 from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Pyle Center, located at 702 Langdon St. The event is titled, American Education Week Celebration: Together We Rise. It will feature workshops for both cooperating teachers and early career teachers, and a keynote by a 2025 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year, Brian Counselman. He is a UW–Madison alumnus who for the past seven years has taught science and experimental education at Malcolm Shabazz City High School, an alternative school in the Madison Metropolitan School District. (Learn more about Counselman here.)
The event will culminate with a ceremony for the Rockwell and Nemec award winners.