Students and staff at Normal Community High School feel that a regional Teacher of the Year award is well deserved for one of their own. Don Whitman’s philosophy of “hands-on, minds-on” has served him through 27 years of teaching STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] and technical education coursework at Normal Community. He was named the East Central Region Teacher of the Year by the Illinois State Board of Education. The ISBE will honor all 14 regional or specialist Teachers of the Year next month, with one being named as the statewide Teacher of the Year.