Wakefield High Teacher Named Educator Of The Year

ARLINGTON, VA — An Arlington social studies teacher was recognized by the News Literacy Project for helping her students be able to spot fake news and become more savvy news consumers.

Patricia Hunt, who teaches 12th grade government at Wakefield High School, received NLP's inaugural Educator of the Year Award Monday for her dedication in helping her students to be more news literate in the digital age.

“Patricia has set the gold standard as the first recipient of our educator of the year award,” said Alan C. Miller, NLP founder and CEO, in a release. “She became an early adopter of our Checkology® virtual classroom e-learning platform when it was launched in 2016 and has made it an integral part of her government class. She’s also developed engaging activities to enhance her students’ ability to learn and apply news literacy skills, and her passion for improving the well-being of her students is contagious and inspiring. We are so proud to give her this award and spotlight her as a champion for news literacy education.”

Hunt first learned about NLP from a Maryland colleague in 2011. She then borrowed that colleague's NLP classroom guide to use in her classes at Wakefield.

NPR visited Hunt's classroom after she began using Checkology for its story, The Classroom Where Fake News Fails. She has also hosted visits from other news organizations, such as CNN.com; ABC News.com; HBO; and Czech public television, among others.

“My goal as an educator is to give students the tools that they need to become lifelong learners," Hunt said, in the NLP release. "My hope would be for them to continue listening to the news, to continue checking their news feed against other news feeds, to stop and pause before sharing. Checkology is the best tool I’ve found to meet that goal.

Watch a video of Hunt receiving her 2020 Educator of the Year Award.