Teachers of the Year Step into the Spotlight
(May 8, 2009) – What do a visit to the zoo by a group of teenagers and a “mini-marathon” run by a group of elementary students have in common?
They are two of the strategies that Katy ISD’s 2009 Teachers of the Year use to provide hands-on learning and teach life lessons to their students.
The two districtwide Teachers of the Year, announced on May 9, are Carol Rogers, science department chair at Katy High School (secondary), and Courtney Calfee, fifth grade reading teacher at Williams Elementary School (elementary).
Carol Rogers has shared 28 years of her 32-year teaching career with Katy students. In addition to teaching Advanced Placement Biology and Anatomy and Physiology at Katy High, she also coaches the school’s Academic Decathlon and Octathlon teams, and serves as an after-school science tutor for limited-English-proficient students.
She has been involved in the district’s Science Summit, Leaders of Learners and curriculum writing for AP Biology, Anatomy and Physiology and Biology I. She also serves as a mentor for new teachers, a KMAC (Katy Management of Automated Curriculum) Trainer and a mentor for the Student Assistance Program (SAP).
In nominating her for the districtwide recognition, KHS principal Joe Kelley said that she “brings a real passion to her work that the kids instinctively feel and is evident to everyone. She is here early and stays late. There are always students in her room. She does all of this with a smile and a great sense of humor.”
Rogers says she’s inspired by “truly finding the good in every student and loving them for it, then helping them perfect the individual artistry of their learning.” After a college degree in microbiology and immunology, she worked briefly for an insurance company before her first offer -- teaching physical science. Textbooks of the 1970s offered little in the way of hands-on instruction, so she developed her own labs and created activities based on energy solutions to the oil embargo.
Today you’ll find Rogers’ students touring the medical center where they watch medical students dissect cadavers, observing physical therapists on-the-job at the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital and visiting the Houston Zoo to study biomes, habitats and environments. Among the rules posted in her classroom: Participate with Joy! -- advice she has taken to heart throughout her teaching career.
Courtney Calfee’s principal, Ronnie Lee, describes her as “not only evangelical for reading skills, but goes the extra mile to help develop her students’ sense of civic responsibility and overall wellness. She is an advocate for each student and never tires of researching the latest trends in order to find the best approach to reach her students.”
Armed with a degree in disciplinary studies, Calfee got a taste of teaching in Second Baptist Church’s pre-school program, eventually becoming Mother’s Day Out and Day Care Director. Ten years out of college, she began teaching at Nottingham Country Elementary in 2004 and moved to Williams a year later to teach fifth grade social studies and reading.
She has been a district staff development presenter and served as a campus trainer for the Love and Logic and Reading Workshop programs. She is also Williams’ Safe and Drug-Free Campus Coordinator and coordinates the campus spelling bee.
The greatest rewards of teaching, Calfee says, are “the students who start the year avoiding books and ‘hating’ to read, then leave my class with a passion for reading. Several years ago, she realized that she “had been teaching books, not readers.” Implementing Readers Workshop “forever transformed” her classroom and replaced the “eye-rolling, reluctant readers who once occupied (her) classroom” into kids who come to class reading as they walk, reluctant to put the book down when the lesson begins.
Calfee sees identifying barriers to students’ reading success as an opportunity to play out her life-long secret desire to be a detective. Keeping parents in the loop is the key to diagnosing and ultimately helping a struggling student, since parents often hold the key to unlocking the problem.
Calfee has taken her love for reading, added her experience running marathons and combined them into the Wrangler Read, Deed and Run (RDR) Marathon for students. RDR is a 25-week program in which fourth and fifth graders meet after school every Tuesday to run one mile. During the course of the program, students also read 26 books and perform 26 good deeds in the community, such as visiting an assisted living facility to read, play the piano and play games with residents.
It has become a family affair, she says, as “kids and their parents plan opportunities for service together, strengthening the family unit while serving others.” This year’s program will culminate this month with a 1.2-mile fun run where kids will earn their marathon finisher’s shirt and medal.
Katy ISD’s elementary campus Teachers of the Year are Michelle Gaskamp, Alexander, 4th grade; Jessica Champion, Bear Creek, 4th grade bilingual; Kim Pitts, Cimarron, kindergarten;
Wanda Rayburn, Creech, 2nd grade; Kris Frederick, Exley, REACH/dyslexia; Kathryn Krebs, Fielder, 2nd grade; Michelle Lee, Franz, 4th grade; Deborah Craig, Golbow, music; Jeff Wirth, Griffin, kindergarten; Pat Mitchell, Hayes, 3rd grade; Judy Rounds, Holland, art; Kathi Walker, Hutsell, 3rd grade team leader; Kimberly Bowman, Katy, 4th grade; Tanncy Rau, Kilpatrick, 4th grade team leader and lead teacher; Amy Suhrer, King, 5th grade; David Fichera, Mayde Creek, physical education; Jane Mannino, McRoberts, 3rd grade; Heather Schuren, Memorial Parkway, 1st grade team leader; Leslie Baker, Morton Ranch, librarian; Jon Maxwell, Nottingham Country, 5th grade; Betsy Engelmann, Pattison, 5th grade science; Ashley Henson, Rhoads, 2nd grade; Jackie Humphrey, Rylander, pre-kindergarten; Melanie Campbell, Schmalz, 1st grade; Gay Lambert, Stephens, REACH; Regina Young, Sundown, special education life skills; Jody Tyler-Rathke, West Memorial, 5th grade; Courtney Calfee, Williams, 5th grade reading; Debbie Welsh, Winborn, physical education; Jill Stavinoha, Wolfe, 1st grade team leader; and Tracy Lutes, WoodCreek, 3rd grade.
Junior high honorees are Michael Daniel, Beck, 6th grade science; Jann Stevens, Beckendorff, 8th grade science, science department chair; Lynn Hokanson, Cardiff, Spanish; Kimba Jackson, Cinco Ranch, PASS; Glenn Welsch, Katy, 7th grade language arts; Kathie Fry, Mayde Creek, librarian; Sheree Charanza, McDonald, 8th grade science; Alvaro de Hoyos, McMeans, Spanish; Debra Brown, Memorial Parkway, special education; Buzz Parks, Morton Ranch, 8th grade English; Emily Fox, West Memorial, 8th grade English; and Lauren Burris, WoodCreek, choir and elective department chair.
High school Teachers of the Year are Stacy Strickland, Cinco Ranch, AP physics, science department chair; Carol Rogers, Katy, anatomy, biology, science department chair and Academic Decathlon coach; Mary Lee House, Mayde Creek, biology; Heather Hall, Miller Career & Technology Center, social studies and criminal justice; Khristopher Turner, Morton Ranch, special education, ISS; Robert Finley, Raines/OAC/BTP Complex, Behavior Transition Program; Li Lu, Seven Lakes, Calculus and Algebra II; and Crystal Atkins, Taylor, Algebra I.