Top public school educators honored by UF

GAINESVILLE, Fla.— A lawyer turned teacher, an outside-the-box science instructor and an innovative principal were among the educators honored as University of Florida Distinguished Educators at the fall commencement ceremony Dec. 15 in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

The UF College of Education presented five Florida educators with the Distinguished Educator Awards, which were created in 1988 to honor the important role teachers and school administrators play in shaping the lives of Florida’s children. While the Sunshine State is home to thousands of teachers who deserve to be honored, the Distinguished Educator Award is granted only to a select few who are identified by their peers as exceptional educators.

This semester’s honorees were :

  • Special education teacher Susan Ames. In addition to her work at Bradford County’s Starke Elementary School , where she has been both a special educator and a general classroom teacher for nine years, Ames serves as the student council sponsor, chair of the hospitality committee and T-ball coach. Last December, she organized a holiday fund drive and purchased presents to deliver to needy families in the community. For her efforts in both the classroom and the community, Ames was named Bradford County Teacher of the Year for 2007-08.
  • Fourth grade teacher Donna Barber. Donna Barber teaches in Franklin County, hours away from St. Augustine – but every year she organizes a trip across the state to give her fourth grade history classes a chance to see, hear and touch historic sites in America’s oldest city. Barber also serves on the school’s leadership team and is very active in community affairs. Her activities led her colleagues to honor her as Carrabelle School Teacher of the Year. She has also been named Sam’s Club Regional Teacher of the Year.
  • Science teacher Richard Ellenburg of Camelot Elementary School in Orlando. For the last six years, Ellenburg has taught his students about ecosystems, food chains and the life cycles of plants and animals in an award-winning school garden. He regularly posts his current study topics on his website and in a monthly newsletter, so parents can get involved. On any given day of the school week Ellenburg can be found working with students in the garden, daring them to use Archimedes’ principles of balance to lift him off the floor, or watching them launch rockets from the schoolyard. His efforts to bring out the fun side of science have steered many of Ellenberg’s students toward scientific careers – and have twice won him Orange County’s Teacher of the Year Award. In July, he was honored as the 2008 Florida Department of Education/Macy’s Teacher of the Year. As Florida’s Christa McAuliffe Ambassador of Education, Ellenburg is currently on sabbatical representing Florida’s teachers by speaking, giving workshops and working with students and educators across the state.
  • Business teacher Gretta Sancho, of Manatee County’s Johnson Middle School. Recognizing that her students often come to class with limited background knowledge, Sancho routinely takes them on tours of local campuses, from Manatee Technical College to the University of South Florida, to see how people train for various future careers. Sancho is chair of Johnson Middle’s electives department, a member of several district-wide committees, and a building representative for the Manatee Education Association. She also mentors students through the district’s Take Stock in Children program and serves as sponsor for the Delta GEMS program, designed to “catch the dreams” of African-American at–risk high school girls. Sancho holds a Juris Doctor degree from UF’s Levin College of Law, and is pursuing a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of South Florida.
  • Principal Mark Strauss, of Virginia Shuman Young Montessori Middle School in Fort Lauderdale. Strauss, who became principal in 2002, attributes the school’s continued success – including an A rating for eight years in a row — to an excellent faculty and staff and the school’s focus on balancing the needs of the FCAT with the needs of the child. Earlier this year, Strauss was named Broward County Principal of the Year and was also a finalist for Florida Principal of the Year. In 2001, while working at Flamingo Elementary in Davie, Strauss was named Broward County Assistant Principal of the Year.

Each fall and spring term, a county from each of the five educational regions of the state is identified and asked to select a distinguished building-level educator representative of all of the outstanding educators in the county. The chosen educators are invited to take part in University of Florida commencement ceremonies as members of the platform assembly in full academic regalia. Each educator is recognized by the president of the university and presented the Distinguished Educator Award from the University of Florida.

Writer
    Tim Lockette, lockette@coe.ufl.edu, 352-392-0726, ext. 274

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