Betsy Ann Wandishin
2003 Maine Teacher of the Year
Ms. Wandishin teaches grade five students at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, Maine. She has been teaching for seventeen years.

What are your beliefs about teaching?
"My father's family are all builders, and my mother's family are all scholars. From them I cultivated a love of learning and a serious work ethic. From my father's side of the family I developed the idea that all children in my classroom are like the custom-crafted houses that he, his brother and their sons have built. Each student is my ‘home’ and each of them is as different as the unique and beautiful homes my family builds. They have different ‘windows’ and ‘doors’ through which I try to deliver a custom-crafted education. In the classroom every day, I strive to design a program that meets the needs of all learners. Students can count on every day being structured, but parents report that their sons and daughters are anxious to ‘get on the job’ and see what new idea will be presented and how.

Like a custom-crafted home, each student receives information differently. I work very hard to deliver curricula to every learning style. My classroom is a combination of tactile, visual and auditory experiences. Learning is a complex entity for the young to hold on to with a firm, sure grasp and may require some assistance. Ultimately, it is each student's responsibility to control the outcome. It is this belief that encourages me to learn about each student without preconceptions. For some, this is the first time that they are not already considered a behavior problem, a poor reader, or a poor writer. My reward at the end of the year is to read the words of students and parents who thank me for allowing their children to see and experience their own unique capabilities. I believe that schools that succeed ‘build’ a ‘Foundation’ of excellence, one student at a time."

How are your beliefs incorporated in your teaching style?
"Being a teacher who is a lifelong learner means that one is constantly searching for new and better practices to use in the classroom. I strongly believe that classrooms should be a place where all learners are received and respected. I strive for a combination of kinesthetic, visual and auditory deliveries. This enables me to keep all students energized and focused. I use the guided-reading approach to ensure reading comprehension and accountability. In addition to this practice, we are also involved in literature circles on a weekly basis. Students are assigned reading material from any subject area and given certain tasks to complete pertaining to the reading. Each task is designed to give the students a more comprehensive, yet guided way to look at reading material. We come back and meet in small circles. Circles are student-led, but monitored by an adult. I continue to be amazed at the depth of understanding, and the quality of the discussions that evolve. In adhering to my personal philosophy that all children can learn, I strive to individualize as much as I can. We all do the same kinds of work, yet what one student is working on might be totally different from that of his neighbor.

Each child has a different blueprint in my classroom. Every year, my program changes to accommodate the needs of the current population. If I have a low reader who has trouble with the social studies text, he uses the taped version so that he is on equal footing with his peers. In reading we focus on developing the reading skills that enable one to read the textbook. Because expository reading is so difficult for fifth graders, much of my social studies instruction looks like reading class. My lessons are designed to teach students the concepts of social studies, as well as how to access the information. A personal goal of mine is to make social studies come alive for my students. I strive to create project-based learning experiences for students. In our unit on Native Americans, we created artwork to accompany learning. For example, while studying Native American legends, we designed buffalo skin winter coats that were then used to aid in the retelling of the legend. We held a liberty tea party during our study of the American Revolution to help students understand the concept of boycotting. We drank raspberry herbal tea and ate English biscuits. I have been collecting artifacts that go in a trunk to help my students understand the life of a Revolutionary War soldier.

This year, my class designed and performed a skit to help other classes understand what life was like in a colonial schoolhouse. This attempt to enrich our study of American history with project based, hands-on experiences makes social studies a favorite part of the day. I incorporate the use of technology whenever possible, and worked closely with our Technology Integration specialist this year to incorporate technology into all areas of my curriculum. We have done web quests, power-point presentations, designed trading cards for Revolutionary War heroes and practiced graphing and charting. Many experiences for many learners is how I reach my students."

What is your greatest teaching accomplishment?
"My greatest teaching accomplishment is being named Maine's Teacher of the Year 2003."

What's the most critical issue facing educators?
"In the book On the Art of Teaching, Horace Mann says, ‘Aptness to teach involves the power of perceiving how far a scholar understands the subject matter to be learned, and what, in the natural order, is the next step he is to take. It involves the power of discovering and of solving at the time the exact difficulty by which the learner is embarrassed. The removal of a slight impediment, the drawing aside of the thinnest veil which happens to divert his steps or obscure his vision is worth more to him than volumes of lore on collateral subjects.’ What is it that makes teachers think about their practice and strive for originality and creativity in their classrooms? How do we teach our teachers to step out of the box? How do we create quality teachers? Those who do step out of the box and go one step further are how we may be able to separate good teachers from excellent teachers. Much of the complaint about education today is that our students are not developing critical-thinking skills. How can we be surprised when we know teachers who are unable or unwilling to do the same? Why are some teachers able to take this next step beyond just good and become excellent and others not able? I believe that part of the cause lies in the way we conduct teacher preparatory classes for college students.

Much of what they are told to do during their coursework and then later in their student teaching is to copy and collect as much of their mentor teacher's work as they can. Then when they are ready to start a classroom of their own, they have something on which to rely. Teachers are ardent consumers of knowledge, always looking for new and better ways. We go online, to teacher resource stores, bookstores, and order from Scholastic, etc. We are voracious in our attempts to collect material. What do we do with it? Do we just take someone else's ideas and make them our own, or do we study it, think about it, tailor it, change it and absorb it to help ‘lift the veil?’ That is my definition of critical thinking. The best teachers I have ever had or worked with are those who step out of the box and create a learning environment based on solid research, good teaching techniques, individual teaching style, and the individual learning styles of each student that enters their classroom."

What do you think can be done to solve this issue?
"We start with our learning teachers, those who are in college learning how to become educators. Their tasks, their experiences and their learning should be targeted at helping them to become original and creative. Instead of assigning the development of an integrated unit and encouraging them to go visit classroom teachers to see what they have in their files, give them critical-thinking tasks that guide them through the process of developing a unit based on the unique needs of a curriculum or class. Using the working backwards process is an invaluable tool to help teachers develop units of study tailored to their own specific outcomes and benchmarks. Learning teachers should identify outcomes and work backwards to develop essential questions and activities designed to answer them. Resources would then be used as they are intended, to enhance and enrich a concept or idea."

One thought to inspire teachers to excel
"If you have truly touched the life of a child, they will come back to you when they are older and they will tell you that you made a difference in their lives. When that happens, you will truly understand what it means to touch the future by teaching."

One lesson every student should learn
"To become captain of their own ship, no matter where it is sailing.

Favorite Teaching Tool:
"AlphaSmart Keyboards, overhead projector, I-books."

Favorite Web site:
www.jumpstart.com – JumpStart World
www.school.com – Everything you need for school
www.learningco.com – The learning company
www.edmark.com – Edmark Products