Jackie Sternberger was comfortable, even content.

Then, in his one year as Kingfi sher High School’s principal, Jay Wood stirred all that up.

Now he’s the superintendent at Dover...

And Sternberger is the Kingfi sher Public Schools teacher of the year.

The high school history teacher was announced as such by Superintendent David Glover on Wednesday during an in-service day.

She was previously selected by her peers as the KHS teacher of the year, one of five in the district.

Sternberger was joined by Jill Haub, a seventh grade English language arts teacher at Kingfisher Junior High; Cortney Deterding, a special education teacher at Kingfisher Upper Elementary; Makylah Henton, third grade teacher at Heritage Elementary; and Melanie Green, kindergarten teacher at Gilmour Elementary.

After the five were selected, all teachers in the district then voted to pick the singular winner.

“I am surrounded by so many great teachers who are passionate about their students and their profession,” Sternberger said. “To be selected by them, I’m truly honored and humbled.”

John Harris is in his first year as the KHS principal, so he hasn’t been able to see Sternberger work her craft for too long.

“But I do feel like they made a great choice,” he said.

Harris then rattled off a long list of qualities Sternberger possesses.

Among them? “She’s a great team player, she volunteers for committees at the site and district level, she’s a strong motivator, a talented educator and employs effective teaching strategies,” he began.

••• Sternberger is currently in her second stint at KPS.

The Sternbergers moved to Kingfisher from Clinton prior to the 2011-12 school year when Jason, her husband, was hired as superintendent here. ( Note: After 10 years as KPS superintendent, Jason Sternberger is now in his second year in the same role at Hennessey.)

She spent five years teaching American history at the middle school while also coaching junior high boys basketball. (

Jackie Snodgrass Stern- berger is considered one of the best basketball players in Southwestern Oklahoma State University history and was inducted into that school’s athletic hall of fame in 2005.)

She then spent three years teaching outside of the district, but returned prior to the 2019-20 school year.

She resumed her role teaching American history at the middle school (now the upper elementary) and coached junior high girls basketball.

Then Wood called. “He asked me if I would come to the high school and teach sophomore U.S. history,” Sternberger recalled.

Admittedly, she was hesitant.

“Not because of fear, but because I was comfortable,” she said. “I knew my eighth grade material well. I had my lessons designed and I was pretty good at it.

“Why would I change now?”

But she did and began to “brush up” on post-Civil War history.

“I hadn’t taught that material for more than 20 years,” she said.

Then Wood hurled another curveball Sternberger’s way.

“He asked me if I would teach AP U.S history,” she said.

AP stands for “advanced placement.”

The high school courses were created by the College Board and are designed to offer college-level curriculum.

At the end of the year, students pay to take a test that can earn them college credit if they score well enough.

“This was a pressure I didn’t know if I was ready to deal with,” Sternberger said.

The district sent her to specialized training for the course.

“I realized I had a lot to learn,” she admits. “Not about history, but how to write historically and how to teach students to use historical thinking skills that would be graded by the College Board.”

As she’s now a year-anda- half into it, Sternberger is learning as she teaches.

In an age where information is a few keyboard (or smartphone) strokes away, teaching history has evolved.

Getting students to memorize facts and dates aren’t what history teachers should still be doing, she said.

Sternberger describes herself as a facilitator of information.

“My job is to guide students with the correct material and let the students investigate and learn,” she said. “In class, my students analyze primary sources and secondary sources to gain knowledge on specific events. We use the historical thinking skills of causation, comparison and continuity and change to create arguments and write essays.”

She uses group seminar sessions where students come up with reasoning and logical explanations for why events have happened the way they have over the years.

“Teaching students to think for themselves and how to express these feelings is difficult, not to mention teaching them how to be open-minded,” Sternberger said.

Dr. A.J. Johnson has been at KPS for decades.

He’s seen many a history teacher come and go.

Now serving in a parttime role, he was once the head of the history department.

He observed Sternberger’s work from afar - in a sense - while she was teaching eighth grade.

Now they’re in the same building.

“Mrs. Sternberger is one of the finest American history teachers I’ve been pleased to know,” he proclaimed.

“Not only is she an excellent lecturer, but she also constantly explores new ways to engage her students in discussion and critical thinking exercises.”

On top of tackling the training necessary to teach an AP course, Johnson said Sternberger “continues to read widely in the field and always looks for new and interesting ways to present material to her students that especially emphasizes writing and discussion.”

When it came time for Johnson to step down as the department head, Sternberger was his recommendation as the successor.

“She’s done a wonderful, professional job,” he said. “Our district is fortunate to have her.”

As her teaching career stretches toward three decades, Sternberger said she strives to improve and to instill that in her students.

“I really do love teaching and sharing my passion for history with my students,” she said, while also noting she realizes not all students are “history buffs.”

“The skills I hope to leave them with are ones they can use forever. I’m not perfect and I am definitely still working on my craft,” she said.

There are days Sternberger says she feels like she’s accomplished a lot as a teacher and then some where she’s forced to question herself, the education system and even, at times, humanity.

“But like I tell my classes, we don’t have to be perfect; we just have to keep standing,” she said.

“My goal: Be better than I was yesterday.”