Teachers can’t hold back the ways social, political, and technological changes disrupt their students’ lives. But teachers have the power to help their students adapt to and thrive in an evolving world, says Ashlie Crosson, the new National Teacher of the Year.
“Helping students realize that learning isn’t something that’s happening in a classroom, but happening in your life,” Crosson said in an interview with Education Week after the announcement April 29, “is a good way of helping our students find confidence and engagement and motivation.”
The Council of Chief State School Officers tapped Crosson, an English language and composition teacher at Mifflin County High School in Pennsylvania, from four finalists among 56 teachers of the year hailing from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity schools, and U.S. territories.
The National Teacher of the Year selection committee called Crosson an “authentic, self-reflective leader,” praising her for “using her voice to help people understand the weight of the teaching profession and the gravity of what teachers do.”
Crosson will take a sabbatical from leading her English, journalism, and Advanced Placement language and composition classes to serve as an ambassador for teachers during the 2025-26 school year.
A high school art trip to Europe proved transformative for Crosson, a first-generation college-goer who grew up in the same rural Pennsylvania community where she now teaches. It sparked her commitment to using literature and writing to help her students understand the global community.
In addition to standard English/language arts and composition classes, Crosson developed a popular elective course called Survival Stories, in which students study novels, documentaries, and other media on global crises like war and natural disasters, told from the perspective of young people.
“If this is something that real kids are experiencing across the world, then this is something that should have a moment of space and conversation in our classroom,” said Crosson about her approach to the class. “One of the ways that we’ve combated our students’ lack of confidence or disengagement with their education is by naturally making the things that they’re reading and talking about something that they’re really excited about.”
Getting ahead of technology, including AI
Teachers shouldn’t shy away from using challenging texts and conversations in their classrooms, even if they touch on divisive topics, Crosson believes.
“Our profession is one that’s always going through a lot of social commentary, and I think that pressure or that spotlight can be overwhelming sometimes,” she said.
She also believes teachers need to get ahead of technology, such as artificial intelligence and social media, that has the potential for good or harm in students’ lives.
Now that her Generation Z students tend to get news first from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, Crosson incorporates multimedia texts and analyses into her ELA courses.
“Even if they’re on TikTok or Instagram, students need to learn how to read and analyze and engage with and think critically about visual texts as much as they do black words on white pages,” she said. “If that is where they’re engaging with the world, are they doing so in a way where they have the skillset to discern visual and auditory rhetoric and messaging?”
She acknowledged she’s felt “out of my element” adapting to AI-powered tools in the classroom this year, but insists that learning about them matters for the future.
“AI is 100% going to be a part of [students’] workforce, and so we’re figuring out, what does this look like? … How do we help them learn to use this in a way that’s productive and effective and ethical?”
It’s “huge and exciting and daunting all at the same time.”
