OU-Tulsa Doctoral Student Awarded for Virtual Learning Methods during Pandemic

Aubrey Flowers, principal of Council Oak Elementary School in Tulsa who is working toward earning her doctorate at OU-Tulsa, said it was a complete surprise when she was honored with a $25,000 Milken Educator Award at a schoolwide assembly in April – and the pictures prove it.

If you look at Flowers’ career and commitment to education, however, both for students and herself, it might come as less of a surprise.

Flowers is a 2017 graduate of the Master of Education in Administration program in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at OU-Tulsa and a current doctoral student in education administration. She started her graduate work to continue her passion for lifelong learning after seven years as a teacher.

The Milken Educator Award, established in 1987, celebrates this desire to strive for the best by elevating the American teaching profession. It is not a lifetime achievement award; rather, it honors educators in early to mid-career for what they will accomplish.

The Milken Family Foundation does not take nominations for the award – it seeks out educators and specialists and surprises them with this honor on their home campuses with a special ceremony among their school colleagues and students. That’s exactly what happened to Flowers – at a ceremony where even Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister was on hand.

According to a release on the Milken Family Foundation website about Flowers’ selection as one of the 2021 recipients, her dedication to quality education didn’t waiver during the COVID-19 pandemic when classes were forced online, posing a major challenge to kids and parents. As a principal, her innovation during that transition is what caught the attention of the foundation.

“Flowers created re-entry teams that met virtually to plan, troubleshoot and create a playbook of best practices,” read the statement. “Knowing the challenges their working families might face, balancing at-home learners as well as their own employment, Flowers considered a more innovative approach to live online instruction.”

Flowers came up with a small-group model composed of pods of three to five children, giving each child a more one-on-one experience with a teacher via Zoom.

To keep parents, students and teachers connected, she held regular town hall meetings, sent recorded video and print messages, and held weekly meetings with teacher teams for lesson planning and to stay on top of any obstacles they were facing.

Her commitment to excellence has benefited principals districtwide through her role this year as president of Tulsa Public Schools’ Elementary Principals Association. Flowers is known as charismatic, engaging and inspiring to both students and faculty, and one who cares deeply about students’ academic success.

Flowers, a mother of five, said she had taken advantage of all the professional development training she could as a teacher and reached a point where she was looking for a new way to improve as an educator and as an advocate for children.

That’s when she found the Master’s in Educational Administration, Curriculum and Supervision at OU-Tulsa. The program became more important to her than she expected it would.

“My master’s program was food for my soul, it really was,” she said. “As an employee, I had the hat that I wore as a teacher. And then at home, I had the hat that I wore as a wife and mom, but I would go to school and get to be Aubrey, and get to fuel my passion.”

Flowers was one of 60 recipients nationwide to receive the 2021 award. In addition to the monetary prize, the award includes membership in the National Milken Educator Network, a group of more than 2,700 top teachers, principals and specialists dedicated to strengthening education.

“My role in education is to advocate for the potential in all children,” Flowers said. “I truly do believe in education as the foundation of our democracy. It is a beautiful component of our country, and that access to education and amazing educational experiences are life-changing for people. And that is how we create the change that we want to see in the world – that we invest in children.”