The Alexandria Education Partnership honored seven teachers and two businesses at the 16th annual Excellence In Education luncheon on June 5.
The more than 200 attendees were treated to a video extolling the accomplishments of the teachers. The video featured testimonials from colleagues and students. All of the teachers who were honored are elementary school teachers who work in the city’s public school system.
RUTH BRANNIGAN is a third-grade teacher at Mt. Vernon Elementary School. Five years ago, she left a successful career to attend graduate school and to become a teacher. Last year, she implemented a new approach to third-grade SOL preparation which resulted in improved scores. When funding was denied for an annual trip to Jamestown, she petitioned local organizations and citizens for financial support to make the trip possible. She frequently extends herself by visiting students’ homes, especially those in foster care and diminished familial settings to ensure open communications.
LORETTA FREEMAN is a reading specialist at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School. In June, 2002, she will retire after 32 years of teaching, 20 of which have been spent in Alexandria. Most of that time, she has been a reading specialist, helping the most needy students develop into skilled, lifelong readers and learners. She has co-authored grants that established and built a permanent school-based writer’s craft collection of current and important children’s literature that is used to model specific aspects of what makes good writing and interesting reading. She also established, through grants, a children’s publishing center to encourage and motivate writing.
JUDITH HARMATZ teaches fifth grade at Samuel Tucker Elementary School. She has taught in Alexandria for 26 years. She is adept at employing a variety of instructional strategies that respond to the different learning styles of her students. This instruction, along with high expectations, has resulted in 100 percent of her students passing 100 percent of their SOLs. She has donated hundreds of evening and weekend hours to assist in hiring staff, ordering supplies and materials, mentoring new teachers and creating a positive school culture with high expectations for all.
SHERRILL NEALE is the network resource teacher at Charles Barrett Elementary School. As such, she is the architect of an integrated, interdisciplinary program of technology, instruction that is a model for other schools. Her students are both teachers and children. Through her efforts, kindergarteners begin developing computer skills shortly after entering school in a dedicated kindergarten computer lab. She is creative in finding funds to underwrite the technology programs. The environment that she has developed has resulted in Charles Barrett having the highest technology SOL scores in the city in 2001.
KATHRYN PATTARINI and MARKELL THORNE team-teach a multi-age classroom of second and third graders at Cora Kelly Magnet School. They have been working together for the past four years and have carefully crafted a program that delivers the entire curriculum of second and third grade and reinforces it in the next year. They have participated in a program as cooperating teachers for interns from George Washington University. In the past three years, four interns have completed 16-week internships in their classroom. In addition, for the past two years, they have each served as a mentor to guide new teachers through their first year of teaching by providing emotional and professional support.
GINNY TAYLOR is the band and orchestra teacher at Charles Barrett Elementary School and the band teacher at John Adams Elementary School. She is retiring in June, after 30 years of teaching in Alexandria. She has taught fourth and fifth graders how to play a variety of instruments from the violin to the bass drum and everything in between. Her enthusiasm and love of music has resulted in two-thirds of fourth and fifth-graders enrolling in band or orchestra. She often teaches in the summer music program and developed the citywide explore and experiment session that allows children to try out all instruments before making their choice. She and her husband Wayne, the orchestra director at T. C. Williams High School, plan to spend some time traveling around the United States and enjoying their family.
THE OUTSTANDING Business Partner Award went to Comcast and Virginia American Water Company. Comcast was a local sponsor of the Cable in the Classroom program. They provided area schools with free cable hookup, free continuing cable television service, including over 540 hours of commercial free programming geared toward providing teachers with curriculum-rich resources that inspire learning.
Virginia American Water has applied their water expertise in supplying the water needs for various school functions throughout the city. The company was also a founding sponsor of the Alexandria Seaport Foundation’s environmental outreach program, designed to educate the youth in our area on the importance of our water resources.
“We would like to congratulate all of our winners and thank all of our sponsors for participating in another successful Excellence in Education awards program,” said Scott McGeary, who chaired last week’s event.