Whitefish teacher earns top honors

Whitefish schools continue to reel in the awards. In February, Central School principal Kim Anderson was named Montana's top middle school principal by the National Distinguished Principals Program.

Now, Whitefish High School history teacher Gary Carmichael has been selected as Montana's 2007 Teacher of the Year by the Montana Professional Teaching Foundation.

"It's an honor to be recognized by my fellow teachers to represent them," Carmichael said.

A fourth-generation Montanan whose teaching and library career has taken him from Saco to Great Falls to Whitefish, Carmichael said he was first attracted to history when his mother took him to visit Montana ghost towns and historical sites.

Carmichael says the key to teaching history is to actively engage students as if they are working historians. They can do this by combining technology and old-fashioned research skills.

"Students who are actively involved as working historians can discover not only the content being taught and the technological skills being used, but also the problem-solving processes they will need in later life," he said. "That's what teaching is all about — preparing students for the future."

His students use traditional historical research tools, like Whitefish census and insurance data from the 1920s, but they also create digital movies on the Great Depression and use computer graphing to present research on the Civil War.

A former social studies teacher at a small school in Saco, on the High Line, Carmichael has also worked as a trainer and online resource for the Discovery Channel School, helping teachers across the country.

He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Montana-Missoula and a master's from Western Governors University, in Utah.

Carmichael first joined the Whitefish school district nine years ago to serve as the librarian at Muldown Elementary. Two years later, he was teaching history at the high school.

He has served as vice president of the Whitefish Education Association, Montana Education Association/Montana Federation of Teachers. He also coaches youth basketball and has worked on the Web site for the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History, at Fort Missoula.

Carmichael's motto for education improvement is "Think big, start small."

"As educators, we are much like our students — we build upon our successes and learn from our failures," he said. "Success breeds success, so as we reach short-term attainable goals, we can't help but be successful in improving Montana education."

As Montana's Teacher of the Year for 2007, Carmichael will represent Montana at the National Teacher of the Year event, sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers. He will also serve as a spokesperson for the teaching profession throughout the year.

Along with other state teachers of the year, Carmichael will meet President Bush at a White House ceremony next spring and attend International Space Camp in Alabama next summer.