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	Last updated 10/16/02

The NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence

2002 Finalist and Recipient of The Horace Mannö
NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence

Stephen Smallwood
Oklahoma Education Association

Stephen Smallwood teaches speech, drama, and debate at Broken Bow High School in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Prior to joining the Broken Bow faculty in 1991, Mr. Smallwood taught for seven years in the Perry, Oklahoma, public schools and eight years in the Lawton, Oklahoma, schools. He also lived for six years in New York City, where he was a personnel officer for Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company and writing instructor for foreign students at the American Institute of Banking.

Through his teaching, Mr. Smallwood helps his students discover that, indeed, "all the world's a stage." In 2002, Broken Bow students won the state's one-act play competition and represented Oklahoma in the American High School Theater Festival sponsored by the international Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Drawing on his personal experience as a member of the Choctaw Tribe, Mr. Smallwood creates a classroom environment that recognizes, respects, and capitalizes on the diversity represented in the student body and in the community. A nationally-recognized leader in his field, he shares examples from his own background to encourage students to broaden their horizons when considering options for careers and postsecondary education.

Mr. Smallwood is a political activist and advocate for public education at the local, state, and national levels, beginning in his hometown of Rattan, where he attended high school and is now mayor. He served two terms as president of the Broken Bow Classroom Teachers' Association, as well as two terms on the board of directors of both the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) and the National Education Association. Carolyn Crowder, OEA president, illustrates Mr. Smallwood's influence by noting that she "cannot go anywhere in Oklahoma without running into one of Stephen's former students. Without fail, they approach him with a display of respect and love, and they flourish under his caring hand."

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