IHC honors two outstanding teachers of the humanities

Capital High School teacher Edward Torgerson (Boise) and Lincoln Elementary School teacher Michael Bone (Rexburg) received awards in March 2005 from the Idaho Humanities Council for “Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities” on the high school and elementary school levels respectively. The teachers were recognized because of their passion for the humanities and their ability to inspire students through their love of their subject and their innovative teaching methods. Each teacher received $1,000 personally and $1,000 for his school to devote to improving the teaching of the humanities.

Capital High School teacher Ed Torgerson (center) was honored with remarks by (L to R): Boise School District administrator Russ Heller, IHC Chairman Marc Johnson, Capital High Principal Jon Ruzicka, and District 15 Representative Steve Smylie.

Ed Torgerson is a 35-year veteran teacher of German, English, World History, Geography, and Advance Placement United States History. A former Social Studies Department Chair at Boise’s Fairmont Junior High for 24 years, and a teacher at Capital High School since 1994, Torgerson is the chief editor of the Boise School District’s History and Social Studies Curriculum, and the co-founder of the Idaho Council for History Education. Fellow teachers and administrators who nominated Torgerson for IHC’s award praised him as “a master classroom teacher and as a teacher of teachers,” whose classroom “is a delight for the eye and ear—full of provocative images.” Torgerson, they said, “is directed by an animated teaching style that dignifies and engages every student,” and that he enriches his students, the Boise community, and the state of Idaho “beyond measure.”

IHC Chair Marc Johnson presented Torgerson with his award in an afternoon ceremony at Boise’s Capital High School on March 30, where colleagues praised Torgerson for his inspiring career.

Joining teacher Michael Bone (center, holding plaque) to honor him for Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities on the Elementary Level are (L to R): Madison School District Superintendent Geoffrey Thomas, Assistant Superintendent Lane Hemming, IHC Chairman Marc Johnson, Lincoln Elementary School Principal Rex Miller, and IHC Board members Brian Merrill and Peter Anderson.

Michael Bone has been teaching for six years for Rexburg’s Madison School District #321, five years at Lincoln Elementary. Madison School District Principal Jeff Hawkes, who nominated Bone for IHC’s award, praised Bone for his innovative methods of teaching reading and a variety of other subjects to his students by creating theatrical plays, involving fourth grade students in a variety of productions, from Shakespeare’s Macbeth to an original opera entitled Give Those Coconut Trees a Whack. In addition to collaborating on writing music for the opera, students also helped with choreography and set design. At his school, Bone created an annual event called “The Storyteller’s Haunted Mansion,” at which students perform their own plays based on their readings of children’s books. More than 1,000 adults and children attended the first production. Other teachers have admired and some have adopted Bone’s techniques of using dramatic methods to address state standards in the areas of reading, language arts, science, social studies, and math.

IHC Chair Marc Johnson presented Mr.. Bone his award in a school assembly attended by all students of Rexburg’s Lincoln Elementary

IHC’s awards for “Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities” are presented to an elementary and a secondary teacher biennially. Teachers may be nominated for the award by fellow teachers, administrators, parents, or students. The next call for nominations will be in the fall of 2006.