2001 Indiana Teacher of the Year
Ms Strunk is a primary level special education teacher at Muessel Elementary School in South Bend, Indiana. She has been teaching students in grades one to three for ten years.

What are your beliefs about teaching?
"Outstanding teachers need to reach every child at his or her own level. We must find the way in which each child learns and focus our attention on teaching to that particular child. We do not have "cookie cutter" kids and should not teach in only one way. Outstanding teachers should constantly evaluate lessons to see what works. We need to turn the learning potential of a child into actual skills."

How are your beliefs incorporated in your teaching style?
"I found that my students were really struggling with short vowel sounds. I knew, however, that they learned well through music, movement and sight. I created a vowel song with different motions and claps for every vowel. It was amazing how quickly they not only learned the vowel sounds, but have retained them."

What is your greatest teaching accomplishment?
"My greatest sense of accomplishment comes every time a child says 'I did it!'"

What's the most critical issue facing educators today and what do you think can be done to resolve this issue?
"The most critical issues facing educators today is recruiting and retaining outstanding teachers. This issue could be resolved through meeting at the local, state and national levels to see what is not working. I feel we definitely need to strengthen our mentoring programs for new recruits. They need SO much support during those first few years of teaching. I just finished my tenth year and found that all through that time I needed a great deal of support."

Inspirational thought
"Achieve YOUR personal best, celebrate and raise the bar to the next level."