[Noozhawk’s note: One in a series on the teachers who will be honored Oct. 25 at A Salute to Teachers, presented by Cox Communications and the Santa Barbara County Education Office.]
Eight public school educators will be recognized Oct. 25 at the 12th annual Salute to Teachers, an event hosted by Cox Communications and the Santa Barbara County Education Office at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito.
Natalie Wilkes — a Monte Vista School first-grade teacher in the Hope Elementary School District in Santa Barbara — is the 2026 Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year.
Sara DiSalvo, a music teacher at Cold Spring School in the Cold Spring School District in Montecito, will be recognized as the 2026 Santa Barbara Bowl Performing Arts Teacher of the Year.
The 2026 distinguished mentors to be recognized are social studies and AVID teacher Nicole Caiazza at La Cumbre Junior High School in the Santa Barbara Unified School District, Clarence Ruth School teacher Wendy Culver in the Lompoc Unified School District, and instructional coach Amanda Wildhagen at Fairlawn Elementary School in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District.
The 2026 distinguished new educators to be honored are agriculture teacher Alondra Barrueta-Novoa at Santa Maria High School in the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District, agriculture/science teacher Emily Garcia at Carpinteria High School in the Carpinteria Unified School District, and bilingual education specialist Gloria Sevilla at Taylor Elementary School in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District.
In addition to Cox, Salute to Teachers is sponsored by Noozhawk, Driscoll’s, Fielding Graduate University, Melfred Borzall, Ramsey Asphalt Construction and the Santa Barbara Bowl.
Noozhawk Q&A
Noozhawk: What was the moment you knew, “I want to be a teacher?”
Natalie Wilkes: Teaching was actually the career path I was certain I wouldn’t take. With many teachers in my family, and a sister who knew from a very young age that this was her calling, I figured if I was meant to be a teacher I would have felt that way from the start.
The moment came when I was pursuing a public relations and advertising major, and a friend asked if I wanted to join him for volunteer hours at a nearby preschool. I unexpectedly loved it and found my purpose in the unfiltered wonder of 4-year-olds.
Noozhawk: How long have you been teaching?
NW: 15 years.
Noozhawk: What is your favorite subject or lesson plan to teach your students?
NW: Reading! This subject area was full of frustration, tears and confusion for me as a student, so it’s empowering to understand and implement evidence-based reading practices with my little learners.
The science of reading has shown us that reading differs from skills like talking and walking, because reading is not innate. That means reading should be explicitly taught.
And as a first-grade teacher, I get to play an important part in helping my students “crack the code.” It sounds cheesy, but it truly is so rewarding.
Noozhawk: What’s your classroom superpower — and how did you develop it?
NW: Maybe my greatest superpower is knowing I don’t know it all. When a question or problem pops up in a lesson, meeting or planning session, I’ll dig into the research to find solutions. So many resources are at our fingertips!
Another superpower is my structure. I find students feel a sense of stability when expectations and routines are predictable. When I was in elementary school, my dad’s life was cut short by a gliosarcoma, an aggressive brain tumor.
My little world got pretty scary when my charismatic hero suddenly had stitches, staples and slurred speech. And then, he was gone.
While cancers like that are rare, it’s not uncommon to have students in our classrooms who are navigating trauma. Consistent routines help these children who may be living in a heightened state of worry, because they know what to expect.
We carry so much of our own experiences into our teaching, and developing this superpower, as you might call it, is a priority for me.
Noozhawk: Share a student success story that stays with you (no names needed).
NW: I had the privilege of teaching a headstrong little learner with a remarkable vocabulary, a goofy sense of humor, and an ever-present, cheerful lisp.
Like many other students who show patterns of neurodivergence, she had endearingly specific interests, too, which added to the vibrance of our classroom community.
Over the course of the school year, I was able to work closely with her parents to help her grow as a successful first-grader. Together with the school counselor, we coached her in becoming a “social detective” — picking up on the social cues that help us understand others’ feelings.
In academics, she was just above the threshold to receive support from our intervention teachers, so her parents and I communicated regularly, making reading more approachable by breaking it into smaller chunks, and offering choice and positive reinforcement whenever possible.
She started the year reading just a handful of words per minute at about 50% accuracy and concluded the year reading more than 60 words per minute at about 95% accuracy.
Students can make a staggering amount of progress at this age, especially when there’s a team-oriented approach. Many of my success stories come from partnering with families like this one.
Noozhawk: What’s one change you made this year — tool, routine or strategy — that moved the needle?
NW: All of the Hope School District teachers recently completed an intensive, two-year graduate level course called LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling).
This professional learning opened my eyes to exactly how the brain works when someone is learning to read. With this new information, the last few years have been transformative in the area of literacy instruction.
One specific routine I have intentionally changed this fall is how I teach vocabulary. When people think of first grade, they may expect all of our reading work to be with sounds and how they relate to letters. But what we’ve learned is students need to understand the words they’re decoding, and that’s where vocabulary comes in.
This goes beyond a dedicated vocabulary time in which words are practiced in a variety of ways to increase ownership.
I’m also working to involve them in quality classroom discussions. Two of our recent guest speakers highlighted the compelling data about conversational turns and their strong association with language and vocabulary development.
When we teachers stop dominating classroom discussions and integrate language-rich, interactive conversations, we replace student listening with student learning.
Noozhawk: What advice would you give your first-year teacher self?
NW: For one of our August professional learning days, the Hope School District hosted Michael McDowell, a leader in rigorous learning. He had the whole room laughing when he said teachers are the only professionals to immediately scale new strategies.
To my first-year teacher self, I’d echo his advice — make the integration of a new teaching method doable by starting small. Link it to current practice in one period of your day.
After making it routine, think about sustainable next steps for scaling. Don’t try to do it all right away!
Noozhawk: Who are your mentors?
NW: I’ve been fortunate to have been mentored by so many dedicated educators. I was 22 when I started teaching in the Hope School District, which is known for its high retention.
Because teachers stick around, there’s a lot of wisdom in our teaching staff. From my first day on, my colleagues have not only shared their lessons, they have also modeled how to advocate for students.
Two teachers have deeply impacted my work. Cindy Everman, my grade-level teammate for nine years now, is the epitome of a lifelong learner.
She logs into number sense professional development courses after school hours and often listens to investigative educational podcasts. She shares everything from both her mind to her classroom cupboards completely freely.
Allison Heiduk — a longtime classroom teacher and now the district’s curriculum and instruction TOSA (teacher on special assignment) — generously shares everything she’s worked so hard to learn with everyone she works with.
Her dedication to high expectations for students has also elevated our teaching protocols districtwide.
Noozhawk: Who are the people in your life and work environment who support you every day?
NW: My Monte Vista School colleagues! I’m fortunate to work at a school where teachers see education as a collaborative process. I love that teaching is not a zero-sum profession.
In a zero-sum job, there’s only so much success to go around. But in teaching, when a teacher shares a great lesson, more students learn. The first class doesn’t lose anything.
I’m grateful for our superintendent, Anne Hubbard, and our principal, Hans Rheinschild, who encourage collaboration over competition. These leaders also support us by purchasing evidence-based curriculum and hosting high-quality professional development.
My biggest supporter is my husband, Tyler. He is also a teacher and was actually the friend in the first question who asked me to volunteer with him at the preschool while we were undergraduates.
We’re currently navigating the “in-it” years of parenting our three young kids while also teaching. The laundry piles are high, breakfast is often on the go, and at least one family member is getting over a cold.
Are we exhausted? Definitely. But, we also have a deep understanding of each other by both being teachers.
I’m lucky to be doing it all with my best friend who gets it because he’s right there in it with me.
Noozhawk: What is your favorite quote?
NW: “Let us not be scared of the work because it’s hard, let us move the mountain because the mountain must move,” which is part of a powerful poem by Danez Smith calling for systemic change.
That feeling of obligation tugging at you and challenging you to keep at your mission applies to many contexts.
Noozhawk: How does it feel to be honored as part of A Salute to Teachers?
NW: It’s honestly still just so surprising.
I was shocked when my superintendent called to ask if I would accept our district’s recognition and move forward with the lengthy county application. I thought she might be calling me to tell me to simmer, because in the months leading up to that call I had quite a bit to say.
I was wrong. In her call, she appreciated my assertiveness.
On that note, I share this recognition with my committed Hope School District teaching community, where we’re encouraged to ask ourselves what’s working, what isn’t, and what are we doing about it?
