Rosanna Harshman of Huntington Beach High earns district Teacher of the Year honor

Rosanna Harshman has been teaching English at Huntington Beach High School for 13 years now.

That number has not been unlucky to Harshman in the slightest.

She was recently honored as one of two Huntington Beach Union High School District Teachers of the Year for 2025.

Harshman was surprised by her family, district staff, the Board of Trustees and even the school band during a staff meeting on Jan. 29.

“I think all last week I felt pretty overwhelmed, in a very positive way,” she said. “I definitely felt really honored and validated, and humbled at the same time. I love being a teacher and I love this school. To have that kind of recognition just makes you feel validated and seen.”

The other HBUHSD Teacher of the Year is Eric Dykes, a social science teacher at Westminster High.

Harshman earned both her bachelor’s degree and a master’s in English literature from Cal State Long Beach. After doing her student teaching at Los Alamitos High, she was hired at Huntington Beach High and has been there ever since.

Huntington Beach High School English teacher Rosanna Harshman, right, is surprised by family and staff on campus on Jan. 29.

(Courtesy of Huntington Beach Union High School District)

She currently teaches both freshman honors English and a senior English class called Environmental Literature, which she created and got approved through the state of California.

“It’s a really cool class,” she said. “We read lots of nature writers, but then the kids also have to do environmental service as part of the class. It’s very project-based learning, and we have great relationships with local environmental groups … We’re even responsible for all of our on-campus recycling. It really makes the students see how their work can kind of exist outside the classroom.”

Harshman also works as a teacher on special assignment through the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support program, which partially involves working on campus school-wide events focusing on wellness.

“It’s gotten me out of my classroom, and I get to reach a lot of other students too because I do a lot of curriculum design for school-wide stuff, I design our homeroom activities, building culture,” she said. “It’s been challenging for sure, but it’s really taught me a lot.”

Huntington Beach High Principal Brenna Orr has worked with Harshman for the last few years on the Oilers campus, but first met her when Orr was serving as assistant principal at Marina High.

“She is an amazing human being, first and foremost,” Orr said. “She’s definitely a connector on campus. She connects with and supports our adults, she connects with our students and supports them in the classroom as well as our intervention kiddos. I don’t think you could find one person that could say anything negative about her. She’s warm, she’s welcoming and she makes you feel like you want to do more. It inspires you to be a connector as well.”

Harshman and Dykes will be honored this spring by the Orange County Department of Education and could also move on to compete at the state level.

Harshman said she wanted to thank her supportive principals in Orr and Daniel Morris, who is now principal at Edison, as well as Misha Seeker. She said Seeker, who also teaches English at Huntington Beach High, was her first friend when she got into teaching.

Seeker herself was honored as a District Teacher of the Year for 2015.

“My whole department is really supportive and awesome, so I feel very lucky to work here,” Harshman said. “Any time you get recognized for hard work is awesome, but this is kind of one of those bucket list things. I wasn’t thinking about it, it wasn’t on my radar, but it feels pretty amazing to accomplish this. It’s definitely one of those things I’ll never forget, and I feel insanely honored.”