Club member, former DISD General Superintendent and US Assistant Director of Education Dr. Linus Wright will make the presentations. Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath will comment via Zoom. Each honoree receives a $2,500 check and award from the club.
“Rotary International’s motto” is ‘Service Above Self’ and we are happy to recognize these teachers who live that motto every day by going the extra mile to help their students and parents,” explained President Cyndi Janssen.
Each one of these winners deserves an interview:
Elementary Winner – Noemi Villaba, Hotchkiss Elementary 4th grade Bilingual Math and Science. Does TWO in home visits for each student during year to better understand student’s situation. Set up Zoom conference with parents each Friday during lunch hour to keep them apprised of child’s progress during in home learning. Adapted lesson plans to student’s interests – knowing nothing about football, used Dallas Cowboy subject matter to design math and science lessons to improve student’s progress. At former school, created a robotic team resulting in a formerly unruly student developing leadership, cooperation and mediation skills from team interaction.
Middle School Winner – Katie Benningfield, Talented and Gifted School in Pleasant Grove. With no theatrical experience and in a newly opened school where she knew no one, created and presented an all school musical using Disney Musical in School format. Used Project Based Learning program to guide students in attacking a loose dog problem in the neighborhood with a Pet Fair, educational programs and other enforcement activities. Demonstrated that girls could “do” science by creating an all-girl team for a Lego robot competition. Student teams researched advantages and disadvantages of various energy sources and presented their results in a variety of formats – skit, speech, video, posters, jingles, etc. with all team members participating.
High School Winner – Jennifer Sanders – Cluster Lead Teacher, School of Business and Management. Created Fish Camp orientation for incoming 9th graders that was entirely run by more than 40 more advanced students who created and taught business and leadership curriculum. Student Volunteers for Income Tax Assistance filed 52 returns with no errors and clients they assisted received $81,355 in refunds. Rewrote Quick Books program to function on mobile phones when pandemic precluded students’ use of schoolroom computers. Program adopted by El Centro College for dual credit classes.