Foreign language teacher Elisabeth Kahn named Vermont’s 2020 Teacher of the Year

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Middle school foreign language teacher Elisabeth Kahn has been named Vermont’s 2020 Teacher of the Year.

I enjoy sharing stories about teachers who have earned applause for their hard work in the classroom. One of these is Elisabeth Kahn, a middle school foreign language teacher from Montpelier, Vermont, who has been named her state’s 2020 Teacher of the Year.

“This is an incredible honor,” expressed Elisabeth. “But no teacher works in isolation. We always look to our students and our colleagues for inspiration, fresh perspectives, and to challenge our thinking, and I’m so lucky to work with some of the best around,” she continued.

Elisabeth was born in Berlin, Washington County, Vermont. She was raised in Montpelier and attended elementary and middle schools in the city before graduating from The Taft School in Waterford, Connecticut. The honored educator earned her Bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish and her Master’s degree in French, both from Middlebury College. She is also a 2020 candidate for National Board certification in French. Her career as an educator has spanned 12 years.

Currently Elisabeth teaches fifth, seventh, and eighth grade French and Spanish at Main Street Middle School (MSMS) in Montpelier. She has taught there five years. The chalkboard champion has also taught at the Hamlin School in San Francisco, California, and at St. Paul’s School for Boys in Brooklandville, Maryland. In addition, for five years she worked at Putney Student Travel developing and leading student travel programs in Europe and Africa.

Elisabeth credits her success as an educator to her hard work towards getting to know her students. She says she is aware of the power of relationships in reaching all learners. In recognition of these efforts, students at her school recognized her with the Adult Citizenship Award in 2017. In addition to her classroom responsibilities, Elisabeth is a member of the MSMS Leadership Team and the Technology Committee, where she leads professional development and implements district-wide priorities. When she worked at Hamlin, she served as the chair of the Eco-Council that sought to promote sustainable practices and curriculum.

In her classroom, Elisabeth promotes the value of traveling abroad to promote cultural competence in her students. Every year she takes her eighth graders on a trip to Quebec, Canada, so they can use their skills in a real-world setting.

For her work in the classroom, Elisabeth has earned many accolades. In 2011 she was recognized with the Irene C. Abbe Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2018 she earned the UVM Outstanding Teacher Award.

To read more about this amazing educator, see the article about her at CCSSO.

Educator Nancie Atwell shares reading/writing strategies

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Here’s some words of inspiration educator Nancie Atwell, an award-winning English teacher who founded the innovative Center for Teaching & Learning.

Nancie discovered a love of books as a child, when she became bedridden with rheumatic fever as a child. Today she teaches English as a writing-reading workshop, an innovative approach to reading she first described in her book In The Middle, now in its third edition (the first two editions sold half a million copies). In her workshop, Nancie’s students choose the subjects they write about and the books they read. The kids, who may not have been readers before taking her workshop, read an average of 20 pieces of publishable writing and 40 books each year. They are also engaged in writing practice that leads to improvement in their writing and reading skills.

In 1990, Nancie founded the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), a non-profit demonstration school she  organized to develop and disseminate effective classroom practices. The center’s faculty conduct seminars, write professional books and articles, and invite teachers from across the US and other countries to spend a week at the school. There they experience the center’s methods firsthand and expose students to other culture groups. So far, 97% of CTL graduates have matriculated to university.

Since 1976 Nancie has written nine books on teaching (with praise from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education), edited five collections and delivered 120 keynote addresses on her teaching. In addition, Nancie has won awards from the Modern Language Association, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. In 2011 she received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of New Hampshire.

To learn more about the Center for Teaching & Learning, examine their website at CTL.

Covid-19 claims the life of retired elementary teacher Michael Ganci

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Covid-19 claims the life of retired elementary school teacher Michael Ganci of Newington, Connecticut.

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of many beloved educators. One of these is Michael Ganci, a retired elementary school teacher from Newington, Connecticut.

Michael was born on June 8th, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Glendale, New York. As a young man, he attended Richmond Hill High School in Richmond Hill, New York, where he graduated in 1963. Michael earned his Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Long Island University, and his Master’s in Education from Central Connecticut State University.

For many years, Michael taught at Ann Antolini Elementary School in New Hartford, Connecticut. Over the course of his long career as an educator, he taught more than 10,000 students. “Mr. Ganci was my fourth grade teacher,” recalls former student Lydia Gibb. “One of the reasons I became interested in science was that he made it fun. He was a wonderful teacher.” Former student Charles Blow agrees. “I remember him as my fifth grade teacher at the Ann Antolini school,” remembers Blow. “He was my hero at that time in my life! Because of him I looked forward to school every day,” continues Blow. “He was very good at drawing caricatures. He’d have us give him a word and would draw an amusing caricature that represented the word. I remember laughing so hard at what he came up with. He was very imaginative!” concludes Blow.

In addition to his career as a public school teacher, Thomas was also a fourth degree black belt, and served his community as a Sensei in Kyokushin karate at the New Hartford Karate Club. He was introduced to martial arts by his father, who had been an amateur boxer, and began his karate instruction in his early teens in New York. In fact, Michael pioneered one of the first accredited college level courses in traditional karate in the United States.

To read more tributes to this amazing educator, see his page at Legacy.com.

Kindergarten teacher Karen Lee shares metamorphosis of caterpillars online

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During the shelter-at-home directive ordered in resonse to the coronavirus pandemic, kindergarten teacher Karen Lee of Norfolk, Viriginia, shares the metamorphosis of caterpillars with her students online.

Every spring in her 30-year career, educator Karen Lee has introduced her classes of kindergartners to a lesson about caterpillars. This year, on the very day Karen introduced her young students to the caterpillars, her school closed down in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Karen took the caterpillars home. In the weeks since then, the veteran educator has been shifting her guided study of the caterpillars as they morph from caterpillars to butterflies into a lesson taught through distance learning.

Since the school’s closure, Lee told the Virginian-Pilot she has been recording and sharing online the metamorphosis of the caterpillars with her kids. The veteran educator has been sharing with her students everything they would have experienced in class. She’s posted videos of the caterpillar’s progress and let students know when they hatched last week.

It’s been difficult to adjust, Karen confesses. With younger children, it’s important to show them things they can see and touch. Digital lessons don’t  convey that as well as face-to-face lessons do. “I don’t know if I’m doing right or wrong,” she says. “I’m just doing what I feel like they need at the moment. They really need us.”

Karen earned her Bachelor’s degree in Science, Education, and Early Childhood Education and Teaching from Arkansas State University in 1989. She has been a teacher in the Norfolk Public Schools system in Virginia since 1999. Prior to accepting her position there, Karen taught for five years at Westside Consolidated in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Lee County School District for three years in Florida. She currently teaches at the Willoughby Early Childhood Center in Norfolk, Viriginia.