Crow named KHQ-6 ‘Teacher of the Month’

Conny Crow teaches her fifth grade class at Oakesdale School.

Oakesdale teacher Conny Crow was the subject of a surprise assembly Friday, April 17, when she was named EWU/KHQ-6 “Teacher of the Month.” The award was presented by KHQ anchors Dan Kleckner and Stephanie Vigil, along with representatives from Eastern Washington University.

Crow, a 1974 graduate of Oakesdale High School and longtime teacher at the school, has taught kindergarten, fourth grade, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. Next year she is set to teach junior and senior high school English.

“She’s been able to do anything we’ve asked her to do,” said Oakesdale Superintendent Jake Dingman. “She’s a master teacher.”

Crow was nominated for the award by seventh-grader Ian Pierce, who has been a student of hers for four years.

On the day of the surprise assembly – while only Dingman and Principal Jason Reed knew about the award – Crow was sick and called in.

So Dingman and Reed had to get ahold of Crow’s husband, Brian, a 31-year Oakesdale school board member, and ask if there was any way he could bring her in at the scheduled time.

Brian said he could and told his wife the assembly was in honor of Oakesdale’s 2014 Washington Achievement Award, also announced that week, and that the school just needed her there for a staff picture.

In the end, Brian came through and Conny was sitting with her students when her name was called.

“It was a shock,” Crow said. “I was very deeply touched.”

She has taught at the school for 21 years, her first year there only her second-year teaching before returning 17 years later after staying home with her young children.

As part of the EWU/KHQ-6 award, Crow receives a voucher for any EWU class up to four credits. She said she will likely use it for a literature class in preparation for next year’s teaching assignment.