About
A Lifelong Learning Adventure
Wade Whitehead, a fourth-generation teacher, a product of Virginia's public schools and inductee to the National Teachers Hall of Fame, teaches fifth graders at Crystal Spring School in Roanoke, Virginia. This year marks his 29th year of classroom teaching.
Wade was raised outside Bristol, Virginia, where he attended High Point Elementary School and John S. Battle High School in the Washington County Public Schools system. He graduated with degrees in Anthropology and Elementary Education from the College of William & Mary. He holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Virginia and certification in School Management & Leadership from Harvard University. He is certified in Gifted Education and in grades K-8 is endorsed as a school administrator.
Wade has been a National Board Certified Teacher since 1999. His professional recognitions and awards include the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award, the McGlothlin Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence, the Virginia Lottery Super Teacher Award, the Virginia Lottery Excellence in Education Award, and the Sam's Club Teacher of the Year Award. He was named to the 2001 USA Today All-USA Teacher Team and was the 2000 Roanoke City Public Schools Teacher of the Year. In 2013 he was named “Most Inspiring Teacher” by The Roanoker magazine. In 2016, Wade was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
Through his consultancy, Causing Thinking, Wade has created and presented more than 350 educator, corporate, and family workshops, keynotes, and professional development sessions around the world on a variety of topics including adaptive thinking, differentiated instruction, project-based learning, classroom management, family and community outreach, and technology integration. He has presented multiple times in the United Arab Emirates, where he is helping to transform the K-12 education system. He frequently appears at conferences, schools, universities, and in various media to speak and listen about learning and how it best happens. He cowrote Be A Teacher, published by Vandamere Press, which has been used across college and district teacher preparation and development programs and in schools and districts across the country and, more recently, in China. His partnerships and consulting endeavors have included dozens of school districts, colleges and universities, and companies and organizations including Lexus, Toyota, Pfizer, Exact Sciences, PBS and Apple.
In 2010 Wade established the Teachers of Promise Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization based in Roanoke. As President of the foundation’s Board of Directors, he oversees efforts to identify and recognize the best prospective teachers in America. The foundation’s primary initiative is the Teachers of Promise Institute, for which Wade serves as Executive Director. Established in 2004, the Institute recognizes top students from college and university Schools of Education; to date the Institute has recognized thousands of honorees from dozens of institutions with a two-day conference and celebration gala.
Wade has served on numerous Virginia Department of Education and statewide committees and task forces, including the Committee To Enhance the K-12 Teaching Profession in Virginia and the Uniform Performance and Evaluation Committee. He is a member of the National Assessment Governing Board's Educator Advisory Committee and has advised the United States Department of Education. A former member of the Kappa Delta Pi Public Policy Committee, he was appointed as a charter member of the Virginia Standards of Learning Innovation Committee, which worked to imagine and invent a new generation of assessments and accountability. He has served on a national advisory board at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, where he helped create and judge the national "I, Too, Am the Dream" contest.
Wade has worked extensively with Peter H. Reynolds and FableVision Studios to develop numerous programs and curricula, including the North Star approach to teaching and learning, which serves as the cornerstone of Wade's classroom instruction. This mindset celebrates differences in student learning styles, experiences, preferences, and strengths and has resulted in the development of dozens of teaching resources and technology tools. Wade has served on advisory boards at the Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning, and Creativity and LeapFrog, and as a Mater Certified Educator at Flocabulary.
From 2000 until 2014, Wade served as Chair of the Virginia Milken Educator Network (VMEN). The Network, comprised of recipients of the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award, brought together Virginia’s finest educators on a range of teacher quality initiatives.
In 2003 Wade traveled across Italy and Greece, where he studied the roots of western civilization. Later that year, he continued the adventure by exploring the ancient ruins of Mexico's Yucatan Penninsula. His 1500 photographs and digital video footage were used to write and produce episodes of "Teacher Travels," a by-teachers, for-kids instructional television series on PBS. He has since traveled to the Yucatan, Germany, and Czech Republic to build his portfolio of teaching and learning resources.
For many years, Wade performed with The Jiving Five, his Roanoke-based jazz, swing, and funk quintet. He formerly performed and recorded with The SwayKatz, The Stardusters, the Blue Ridge Trombone Ensemble and his rock band, Soupy Chopez. He is an alumnus of the Gentlemen of the College, the oldest men's a cappella group at The College of William & Mary.
Wade is a Director at First Tee - Roanoke Valley and served on the Executive Committee of the Roanoke Valley Match Play Championship (est. 1935). He is a member of the Dormie Network and Ballyhack Golf Club. A Golf Digest Panelist, he is involved in amateur golf and golf course architecture communities and has played in three State Opens of Virginia.
Wade is an ordained deacon and ruling elder (and former Diaconate Moderator and Session Clerk) at Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). There, he co-created MENistry and was Chair of the RCPC Mission Study Team.
Wade is married to high school sweetheart Robbie Gibson, who works for Otsuka. They are blessed with two chidlren: Jack, a high school Physics and CTE teacher, and Grace, a Business Management major at James Madison University. Wade's parents, Ed and Betty, taught in public elementary schools for almost ninety combined years. Wade's brother Scott, sister-in-law Beth, and sister-in-law Virginia teach in public schools, as do several other family members.