SALAMANCA — Two educators in the Salamanca City Central School District were recently recognized for their hard work and dedication to students in and out of the classroom.
Salamanca teacher Andrea Cooke was presented the William “Buster” Mitchell Educator of the Year award Friday at the Native American Indian Education Association of New York conference in Niagara Falls.
Cooke has been a Seneca culture and language teacher and educator for 20-plus years in schools serving native youth on the Allegany, Cattaraugus and Onondaga territories.
She has worked in the Salamanca school district for the last seven years with six as a teacher, becoming part of the Native American Curriculum Team last July.
Cooke has been active in the Seneca and Onondaga communities her entire adult life, holding a wealth of knowledge about Hodinöhšyonih culture and is dedicated to educating anyone willing to listen.
Cooke is an active and proud mother of seven, grandmother of 14 and clan mother of the Deer Clan.
Buster Mitchell, a Mohawk from Akwesasne, was instrumental in founding the Native American Indian Education Association of New York.
After 12 years as an elementary teacher, Mitchell furthered his graduate education to become the first Native American principal in New York state. He served as principal for 18 years, leaving a positive legacy and impact at the St. Regis Mohawk School.
Mitchell’s friends and colleagues remember him for his deep and abiding commitment to the educational advancement of Native American children, youth and adults, his love of sports, boating, skiing and golf as well as his unending sense of humor.
His family graciously gave NAIEA/NY permission to honor him by naming this annual award for continued service to Native American education.
Also recently, English teacher Brandy Kinney was honored with the Experienced Teacher Award.
Currently in her 17th year of teaching, Kinney was recognized at the annual Center for English Teaching Spring Banquet sponsored by the Western New York Network of English Teachers.
Although Kinney’s career started in the Jamestown City School District with videography and sports journalism, she has spent the last 15 years teaching ninth and tenth-grade English at Salamanca High School.
In addition to being a classroom teacher, Kinney is a co-advisor of the Student Council, a volleyball coach, a team leader and head of the English Department. She is the creator and coordinator of the district’s mentoring program where she provides information, support and encouragement for the success of educators/staff new to the district.
Kinney is a member of the National Council of Teachers of English and has presented at their conference along with the International Society for Technology in Education and the New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education. She is also an Anti-Defamation League Jacques Wolf Educators’ Conference presenter.
Kinney is a partner of Echoes and Reflections which provides professional development to empower educators to become transformative classroom teachers about the Holocaust and has presented at Yad Vashem. She was recently recognized by the state Board of Regents with the Louis E. Yavner Teaching Award for her work in Human Rights and the Holocaust in the classroom using her engaging and interdisciplinary project Atrocity Museum.
Kinney earned a master’s degree from Edinboro University in Curriculum and Instruction and a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Fredonia in English with a minor in Sports & Exercise Studies.
