ELCO PA teacher of year nominee: His yearbook classes teach students many career skills
Teaching was in Jonathan Bickel's blood. The Eastern Lebanon County High School English teacher's mother taught family-consumer science at ELCO and his father taught vocational agriculture at Northern Lebanon High School. He even grew up hearing stories from his father that his grandfather had at one time taught in a one-room school house.
His familial ties to education, combined with great teachers at Conrad Weiser High School, inspired him to pursue a career in education.
Now, after a degree from Penn State and 28 years of teaching 9th and some 10 grade English, Bickel has been named one of 12 nominees for Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year.
"Some of my earliest memories are with my mom in her family-consumer science room and with my dad when they were practicing with the FFA Parliamentary Procedures team," Bickel said. "He would drag me in the summer time to the school with him. I've seen great teaching as a young man. As a student at Conrad Weiser, I had some tremendous teachers in my life. I thought that this would be a great profession."
"I like public speaking, I like interacting with students, and I thought it would be a great fit based on the childhood that I had."
Bickel said he was genuinely surprised to learn he was nominated, partly because so many of the previous nominees and winners looked much younger than he did.
Yearbook class prepares students for life
What likely qualified him, he said, were his two passion projects: advising the school's award winning yearbook, Sigma, and his involvement in the Veterans History Project.
Bickel teaches three different yearbook journalism classes, where students get hands-on experience in design, writing and photography as well as management.
One standout moment from his time as the yearbook advisor was right when the pandemic struck, and they had received a tip that the school would be closing down. He told his students to go out and take all the pictures and gather anything they needed to finish a yearbook.
"Then my yearbook journalists from home, with desktops, worked for the entire time. When most schools were kind of idle there for those two weeks when COVID first hit, our yearbook journalists were working their tails off, and they actually produced this yearbook that was a nationally award-winning yearbook."
The yearbook was recognized by the National Scholastic Press Association as being one of the top yearbooks in the country in 2021 as well as silver crown winner from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
The school's yearbook has also previously won multiple Clyde F. Lytle All-State awards.
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"I know there's a big focus on job ready skills in our schools," he said. "Yearbook is just that. These kids are marketing a product, they have a $30,000 budget. These kids are working on deadlines, they are using those 21st century skills. Being able to communicate effectively with their peers throughout the building, let alone the yearbook classroom."
Bickel said his classes teach students vital skills applicable to their careers after school, no matter what they decide to do.
Telling veterans' stories
Since 2009, Bickel's honors students have participated in the Veterans History Project, a Library of Congress project that collects and preserves firsthand accounts from American veterans.
Students record an interview with a local person or relative who is a veteran for 30 minutes, with questions and a research paper done beforehand to prepare them.
Along with several veterans they interviewed, the student take a trip to Washington, D.C. to the Library of Congress where a copy of the interview is submitted for the library's collection. A copy is given to the veteran, and Bickel keeps a copy for the school.
The students also present the culmination of their work at the school's library in a multimedia project, combining their research and interview into a biographical telling of their veterans time in the service.
"A reason I became really interested is because my dad was a World War II vet. He passed away about three and half years ago. He passed away at 97. He was a World War II B 24 navigator who flew 35 missions," Bickel said.
"So it was really important for me, and one of the great things was my daughter was a freshman in my English class who had a chance to interview my dad, so it meant a whole lot to me and our family, and I know it means a ton to our veterans and their families, having that transfer of knowledge and appreciation of veterans."
Bickel recalled one of his standout experiences in teaching was shortly after the first year working with the Veterans History Project, where he participated in a national teach-in for the project's 10th anniversary, hosted by the History Channel.
He wasn't exactly sure what the next year would look like for him but had been told from former ELCO teacher of the year nominees that the experience bonds the 12 nominees together as friends for life.
Bickel thanked both the Veterans History Project, as well as the hard working teachers at the ELCO school district.
Much like he always expects of his students, he said he would try his best and is excited for wherever it takes him.
The Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year will be announced at the state awards ceremony in December. The winner will go on to represent the commonwealth in national, regional and local functions leading up to the National Teacher of the Year ceremony at the White House.
Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on Twitter @djlarlham.
This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: ELCO Pa. teacher of year nominee focuses on yearbook, veterans
