2009 Wake County Teacher of the Year Finalists

May 12, 2009 – One of 12 finalists will be named the 2009 Wake County Teacher of the Year at a banquet on Thursday, May 14 at the Embassy Suites in Cary.

The semi-finalists were chosen from the Teacher of the Year named by each school.

The 12 finalists were selected from 24 semi-finalists. These teachers developed portfolios with the following content: professional background; educational history; professional development activities; community involvement; philosophy of teaching; education issues and trends; and letters of support. Selection committees reviewed the portfolios and narrowed the field to 24 semifinalists who were then observed in their classrooms by the selection committees. Each selection committee chose one teacher to be among the 12 finalists.

The WCPSS Teacher of the Year program is sponsored by Wachovia.

Broders
Shana Broders 		Darling
Judith Darling 		Dinkenor
Heather Dinkenor
Harris
Arlie Harris 		Herrick
Rene Herrick 		Holt
Michele Holt
Kanters
Colleen Kanters 		Robertson
Julia Robertson 		Townley
Mark Townley
Tuttle
Carla Tuttle 		Valentine
Caroline Valentine 		Warkonyi
Jaime Warkonyi

Here is more information on each finalist:

Shana Broders

Shana Broders is a fourth grade teacher at Wake Forest Elementary. She has been teaching for 15 years, the last 10 at Wake Forest Elementary. She has been active in her church, served as a scout leader and participated in the Relay for Life. She is a wife and mother to four children, three of whom are WCPSS students.

Broders says the rewards of teaching are infinite.

“You cannot hold them, show them to others or bank them,” she said. “They are small and enormous at the same time: seeing the smile on the child who finally learned their multiplication tables, watching one child teach another child a new and exciting concept they have learned. Each and every day can bring a new reward.”

Parent Shannon Vaughn said she was happy her son was in Broders’ class.

“She gave him an appreciation and a love for reading and encouraged him to communicate his understanding on paper,” said Vaughn. “She provided praise when warranted and constructive criticism when deserved. She challenged him time and again to do his best and to never accept second best.”

Judith Darling

Judith Darling teaches eleventh grade Advanced Placement English and Media/Cultural Literacy at Middle Creek High. Darling has been teaching for 18 years, the last four at Middle Creek High. She earned National Board certification in 2000. She has been recognized with a Duke TIP Sawyer Teaching Award, a Fulbright in Japan grant, and was named Wake County Outstanding Teacher of the Gifted. She has been involved in international educational travel experiences and student exchange programs.

Darling describes her teaching style as dynamic, interactive and brisk.

“I try to be heard through clear, written instructions, active, engaging lesson activities and direct, articulate input,” she said. “Students have called it crazy, scary and fun. I call it effective.”

Parent Peggy Turner said that Darling delivered the instruction she wanted for her child.

“Mrs. Darling is a genuinely thoughtful person, a teaching superstar and a leader in education,” said Turner. “She has definite ideas and methods that enhance the process of teaching young people and preparing them for the future. She enriches our education system and touches students’ lives in profound ways.”

Heather L. Dinkenor

Heather L. Dinkenor teaches English at Leesville Road High. Dinkenor has been teaching for 16 years, the last 13 years at Leesville Road High. Dinkenor earned National Board certification in 2001. She’s helped to develop a school wide sustained reading program at the high school and she serves as the professional learning community’s leader for twelfth grade English. She has helped students create school yearbooks that consistently win national and state honors. She has supported the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and the food bank and her journalism class has brightened the holidays for 15 angel tree children.

Dinkenor says her school faculty provides support for their colleagues.

“Having taught in two other schools and school systems, I know I am surely a better teacher now than I was before I walked through the door of 8409 Leesville Road,” said Dinkenor. “Part of that is due to experience, but most of that enrichment is due to teamwork and camaraderie. I feel I do my part in returning this collegial knowledge, whether it is providing vocabulary lessons to a first year teacher to setting up a shared database of best practices for the 12th grade English professional learning community to working with a physical education teacher having trouble with a student we have in common.”

Parent Sherry Frost says Dinkenor brought life lessons into the teaching of her son.

“One of my son’s assigned projects was to use his English skills to write a letter, a thank you letter to any teacher he chose,” said Frost. “I never saw the letter or knew the recipient, until one day his Chemistry teacher approached me. She exclaimed about the wonderful letter she had received from my son and said that she was keeping it in her scrapbook of mementos. I realized Mrs. Dinkenor had used this assignment as a real life example of how the written word could be used to communicate something valuable to someone.”

Arlie M. Harris

Arlie M. Harris teaches grades 6-8 Spanish, Exploratory Language and College Preparatory Success at Moore Square Middle School. Harris has been teaching for seven years, the last three at Moore Square Middle School. Harris is seeking National Board certification and serves as school improvement team chair, foreign language department chair and elective professional learning community team leader.

Harris says schools must help to prepare today’s students as our future leaders.

“They need to develop and adapt the work ethic of past generations so that it can be applied to 21st century ideas,” said Harris. “In the age of information systems and technology, to know information is simply not enough. Students need to know how to decipher, analyze, manipulate and use data and information to solve problems that may be personal, professional, global and universal.”

Fellow teacher Robert Knight says Harris’ leads their professional learning community.

“She is the ultimate professional,” said Knight. “She solicits input prior to meetings, adheres to the published agenda and is able to move forward through complex issues when others would be at an impasse.”

Rene E. Herrick

Rene E. Herrick is a fourth grade teacher at Combs Elementary. Herrick has been teaching for five years, the last three at Combs Elementary. She is working on National Board certification. She tutors students after school and with her husband who is also a teacher takes part in student recognition by taking students on outings to movies and restaurants.

Herrick says building relationships with students has always been a top priority.

“I realized early in my educational career that when I developed a genuinely caring and lovingly disciplined environment for my students, they always performed at their highest academic levels and loved coming to school each day,” said Herrick. “I demand excellence from my students and I demonstrate disciplined excellence in my instruction.”

Parent Janice Buckner says that Herrick truly cares about her students.

“Mrs. Herrick brought her parents to my daughter’s piano recital,” said Dr. Buckner. “She and her husband attended a swim meet the summer after our daughter graduated. Then they both attended the Christmas program at our church in December in which both of our daughters were singing. Mrs. Herrick is truly remarkable in the way she cultivates relationships with the children.”

Michele Holt

Michele Holt is a first grade teacher at Cary Elementary. Holt has been teaching for 12 years, the last 10 at Cary Elementary. Holt has tutored students, traveled to community centers to meet with parents and made the time to support students by attending their extracurricular activities.

Holt says she has always wanted to teach first grade.
“I have always believed that first grade provided the foundation and building blocks for future success as a student,” said Holt. “I believe each child can learn and is in fact an eager participant in the process if provided the proper environment. Each child is unique and learns in his or her own way. This means developing different plans for different students. It also means that one size does not fit all. I believe it is my duty to understand what excites each student in my classroom and then to determine how I can build off this excitement to promote continuous learning.”

Cary Elementary Principal Rod Stanton says Mrs. Holt works well with her team as they meet weekly to plan, strategize and problem solve.

“As we have implemented professional learning communities, she has been an important part of the long and short term team planning and collaboration. As a team leader, her first grade professional learning community has shown great growth in their ability to review data for the purpose of identifying the exact skills each student has either mastered or needs more support. With this data they implement a team wide plan for interventions. Mrs. Holt is goal oriented and takes great pride in her work and the learning of each individual child.”

Colleen Kenny Kanters

Colleen Kenny Kanters is a physical education teacher at Penny Road Elementary. Kanters has been teaching for six years, the last five at Penny Road Elementary. She earned her National Board certification this year. She has helped Penny Road Elementary receive over $50,000 in grants and the school is the first Wake County elementary school to have a weekly health class in addition to Physical Education classes. The teachers at the school participate in health challenges, pilates classes and work-out in an on-site gym. She is physical education team leader at Penny Road Elementary and Southwest Regional Physical Education leader.

Kanters says that schools need to provide sustained nutritional education.

“Physical education without Health Education is like planting a flower garden and then not watering it,” said Kanters. “Children need leadership, education and guidance to help make choices that impact their health and well being. In the early grades, students learn of My Pyramid, healthy food choices and healthy play habits. These habits need to be reinforced to the point where they are truly learned.”

Parent Carol Poole says Mrs. Kanters has introduced physical education in a new light to many of the student at Penny Road.

“Not only has she taught sports – including fair play and good sportsmanship but she has added a whole new dimension through her introduction of nutrition coupled with exercise,” said Poole. “This has encouraged the diverse community at Penny Road how to live a healthy lifestyle and that each and every family can achieve that.”

Julia Robertson

Julia Robertson is a Title I Reading teacher at Green Elementary. She has been teaching for 24 years, the last nine at Green Elementary. She earned National Board certification in 2004. She mentors new teachers and has taught a summer reading course for teachers at Meredith College. She has been active in her church as youth religious education committee member, Sunday school teacher, pageant director and "special projects director" who organizes service projects.

Robertson said she found her calling as a reading teacher.

“Teaching a child to read is an act of social justice, enabling the child to be a productive, self-sufficient adult” she said. “What better compensation is there than the on-grade-level running record of your third grader who started the year at a first grade level? That, and the hugs.”

Parent Carolyn Koning praised Robertson’s giftedness as a teacher.

“She makes learning fun; she tailors assignments and reward systems to the individual needs of her students; she uses pedagogically sound teaching methods; and she has high expectations of her students in both behavior and academic performance,” said Koning. “She is truly kind, genuinely caring, authentically empathetic, exceptionally conscientious and compassionate beyond measure.

Mark Allen Townley

Mark Allen Townley is an Advanced Placement Environmental Science and Earth Science teacher at Holly Springs High. Townley has been teaching for 10 years and helped to open the new Holly Springs High three years ago. He serves as science department chair, school improvement team member, a mentor to beginning teachers and is the school’s NCWISE contact. He’s helped to develop a $250,000 water quality curriculum and resource guide for NC high schools. He’s worked with the school’s Business Alliance, community partners and the town to develop an outdoor learning area at the school.

Townley says he’s found that students learn remarkedly better when they have the opportunity to experience environmental science.

“I saw that if the activity was relevant to that child, then they would retain any knowledge gained far more than when it was read in a textbook,” said Townley. “I have learned that instead of teaching a student about mercury poisoning in Japan, I can ask a student to think about the drink of water they just took from the fountain outside my classroom.”

Fellow teacher Doug Greenberg had praise for Townley. “He instills an awareness of the big picture through personal, relevant adventures at the local level. His students have been all over Wake County investigating their ideas and resolving discussions, testing their approaches to problem solving, analyzing the impact that organisms have on the planet, and deciding what the next step of sustainability might be,” said Greenberg.

Carla H. Tuttle

Carla H. Tuttle is a ninth grade English I teacher at Panther Creek High. Tuttle has been teaching for 15 years and helped to open the new Panther Creek High three years ago. She earned National Board certification in 2005, mentors new teachers, leads a professional learning community for English teachers and is advisor to the school's National Honor Society chapter. She is active in her church and in the community, organizing a school team for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Tuttle says the rewards of teaching make the difficult moments worthwhile.

“I can’t describe the wonderful feeling I get from knowing that I have made a positive impact on someone’s life,” said Tuttle. “Having current and former students tell me how much they have learned and how much my class has benefitted them means my hard work was worth the effort. The joy students have when they are successful, some of them for the first time, brings me joy as well.”

Panther Creek High English Department Chair Karen Oviatt says that Tuttle plays an important role in leading a professional learning community.

“This duty requires that she attend district meetings, plan agendas for PLC meetings, and guide the focus of the English I teachers,” said Oviatt. “As the English I PLC is the largest in our department and its members are constantly fluctuating, this is not an easy task. The patience and willingness to share that she demonstrates to her colleagues over and over again is indicative of the dedication that she has to her instruction, her colleagues and her students.”

Caroline E Valentine

Caroline E. Valentine teaches Academic and Honors Biology and Marine and Astronomical Science at Knightdale High. Valentine has been teaching for 17 years, and helped open Knightdale High four years ago. She has volunteered with the Cape Fear River Watch and worked with Habitat for Humanity.

Valentine says it's important for teachers to make sure instruction is relevant to the lives of their students.

“I believe an accomplished teacher must love their subject and effectively communicate their expertise in a way that helps students make the connection between academic facts and the real world,” said Valentine. “As a science teacher, I am able to accomplish this as I present information grounded in reality. Together we observe, identify, discover and discuss the laws of nature.”

Former student Amy Capolupo says Valentine went out of her way to help her through an ecology course and inspired her to consider attending college.

“Since that time, I have graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Gambia, West Africa, obtained a Masters degree in social work and am currently employed as a disability services counselor at a university,” said Capolupo. “None of this would have been possible if Ms. Valentine had not been there to give me the confidence and encouragement to try.”

Jaime L. Warkonyi

Jaime L. Warkonyi is a fourth grade teacher at Stough Elementary. She has been teaching for four years, all at Stough Elementary. Warkonyi is working on National Board certification and serves as grade level chair, math teacher leader, fourth grade curriculum mapping chair and is on the school improvement planning team. She works in the YMCA after school program and is active in her church.

Warkonyi’s fourth-grade class wrote a book titled, "If I were President…." She submitted the book in the 2008-2009 Nationwide Learning National Book Challenge along with more than 7,000 other entries. Her students are finalists in the national competition.

Warkonyi says that students must be active in their learning and involved in hands-on experiences.

“They will be more motivated to learn if they own some of the power and control in their learning,” she said. “The students are to be encouraged to move about appropriately in the classroom to utilize all there is to offer.”

Parent Ellen Pressley says that Warkonyi is teaching her daughter this year.

“I have found her to be an exceptional teacher, who is responsive to the needs of her students, the needs of their parents, and works seamlessly with other faculty members, who clearly regard her with great respect,” said Pressley. “She has clearly made a difference in my child’s performance in – and attitude toward – school this year.”

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