Teacher of the Year has plenty of class

Kristen Brummel, last week named Teacher of the Year, is the newest heroine of Noelani Elementary School, but not a word of that news appears on her class website.

There, it’s all about the kids of Classroom A-5: photo albums depicting their work, a diary of weekly updates about the student discoveries. That devotion is what underlies her selection as this year’s honoree.

The "About Us" page does have a picture of Brummel and her aide, Natalie Liu. But the centerpiece is a snap of a quote she saw posted above a school entrance during a fifth-grade trip to China she chaperoned in 2008. Below the characters is the translation that reads, in part: "Being with students, I gain wisdom and warmness."

"It struck such a chord in me," Brummel wrote in response, "as I truly feel like my life gets richer with every child that enters our classroom doors.

Yes, we have no Bannana’s

To those who hadn’t driven by the site of the iconic blues-and-biker bar in McCully, it’s no longer called Anna Bannana’s.

Now it’s taken on a Celtic tinge with the name Anna O’Brien’s. The new management also owns Irish Rose Saloon, Kelly O’Neil’s and O’Toole’s.

End of an era, this is. However, another era will probably lapse before folks actually quit calling the place Anna Bannana’s.