Rebecka Peterson

2023 National Teacher of the Year Rebecka Peterson is a math teacher who loves stories. She is in her 16th year of education; Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been her home school since 2012. Rebecka’s message as National Teacher of the Year highlighted teachers’ stories of the good that is happening in education. She believes that when we learn each other’s stories, we carry a piece of each other with us. This helps us to authentically advocate for our students, teachers, and their communities.

In the midst of a challenging first year of teaching, Rebecka joined other educators in a daily practice of noting “one good thing” in her classroom. They lived by the motto that “Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.” This habit transformed her work. Rebecka now collaborates with fellow educators, emphasizing the importance of cultivating intentional joy as a means to sustain oneself in the difficult but beautiful profession of teaching.

Rebecka is a proud immigrant of Iranian-Swedish descent and lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her husband, Brett, and their son, Jonas.