Palo Alto High Teacher Receives National Teacher of the Year Award

Ellen Austin is going to have to add on to her house to accommodate her awards. She was already the 2011 California Journalism Educator of the Year. She was a grant recipient from the National Endowment for the Humanities and spent four weeks last summer studying Chaucer's life and works in London. Add to her accomplishments—2012 National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year.

The latest award, from Dow Jones News Fund, is co-sponsored by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition.  All are powerhouses in the field of journalism.

As part of her award, Austin will spend the coming year speaking and writing about student journalism. It’s going to be tough to carve-out time for speaking. Austin advises the award-winning Viking sports magazine and co-advises INfocus, the live daily news show.

Austin came to Paly in 2007 and is thrilled with how far it’s come during her tenure. Next up, a newly constructed building for house the media program.  "This building, which is part of the bond issue, is a once-in-a-career opportunity and gives us the chance to re-imagine what Paly journalism can do in the decades ahead," Austin told Palo Alto Online. "I can't tell you how much the bond has meant to us as a school community, especially when so many other districts are in such pain." Read the full article by Chris Kenrick here.

Austin will receive her award at a convention in San Antonio Nov. 17.

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