Connie Baumgardt Blackburn
2003 California Teacher of the Year
Ms. Baumgardt Blackburn has been teaching Kindergarten children for twenty years. She currently teaches at Central Elementary School in Escondido, California.

What are your beliefs about teaching?
"I truly believe that my role as a teacher is one of the most important tasks that an individual might choose to undertake. Not only do I have the responsibility of educating children academically, I also feel that it is incumbent upon me to help my students find success as members of our community. These are the adults of the future who will determine what path my community, my society, my country will take."

How are your beliefs incorporated in your teaching style?
"I believe that when I teach in multiple modalities, so that a child’s area of strength is accessed but competence is cultivated, children will learn. I believe that if I provide learning experiences that engage all senses, are multi-tasked, and are scaffolded so that everyone is challenged but successful, children will learn. I believe that if information is presented in an enjoyable and engaging manner, children will learn. I accept the challenges presented by the many ‘at risk’ students that attend my underperforming school and I seek solutions to enhance their performance, academically, socially and emotionally. I am the ‘mommy’ at school. I am the teaching expert for reading, writing, spelling, English language development, math, science, technology use, social studies, art, music, health and physical education.

I purposely teach the life skills of honesty, compassion, friendship, effort and responsibility. I zip pants, remove glue from hair and write special notes home to celebrate a learning milestone. I wear gingerbread costumes and teddy bear costumes to school to help engage in concepts I teach. I dance, hop, sing and get dirty, right along with my students. I say 'please' and 'thank you', and 'I beg your pardon' frequently. I wait my turn, I model the behavior that I want my students to demonstrate. Teaching Kindergarten is not like any other job. I laugh a lot! I get hugs and kisses galore. I feel that I am so blessed because I found a vocation that I am passionate about."

What is your greatest teaching accomplishment?
"There are two aspects of my development as a teacher of which I am most proud. Most importantly, I never give up on any child in my classroom. I take my responsibility very seriously to exit every child from my class at or about academic standards. Equally as important, I want my students to exit Kindergarten feeling successful, that they enjoy coming to school and are capable of accepting challenges, working hard, knowing their job, and working to the best of their ability and their job.

Secondly, because I work at a school where over 67% of the students are acquiring English, I have developed a series of Saturday parent classes and materials so that non-English speaking parents are still able to assist their child to learn at home. At the classes, parents are given information on the learning goals expected of their child. They are also given a set of materials including a videotape and audio tape, with which the student can gain extra practice in achieving various Kindergarten skills at home. This home-school connection has been a deciding factor in preparing many of my students for first grade instead of entering first grade at risk of failure."

What's the most critical issue facing educators?
"One of the most critical issues facing educators today, especially in California, is finding out how will we continue to deliver a high quality program to all students in the face of serious budget cuts"

What do you think can be done to solve this issue?
"There will be no quick solutions to this issue. Funding, or the lack of funds, is going to be with us for a long time. However, partnerships with the business community may help to alleviate some of the shortfall we are experiencing. It is no surprise that schools that excel have affluent student bodies and that the lowest socio-economic students attend the most underperforming schools, and the schools with the greatest challenges haven’t got the parent/mentor base that higher performing schools have. My challenge to those who would like to mentor a student would be to look beyond your child’s excelling school. Give your time to schools where the children are eager and excited about learning but haven’t the volunteer resources to match a mentor with every child that needs one. Business owners, instead of denigrating the work of teachers, find out how you can support programs in your local schools. It is easy to point fingers or talk about the poor quality of instruction going on in our schools today but nothing could be farther from the truth. The gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ is widening and if we want our country to remain the great democracy that is, we had better find practical, humane ways of leaving no child behind."

One thought to inspire teachers to excel
"A teacher has such power to inspire or to create dread in a child. Choose to be the instrument of inspiration and not the instrument of torture."

One lesson every student should learn
"Our society has become so complicated and so fragmented. There are so many life lessons that every child should know, above and beyond what they must know academically. Of course, everyone needs to learn that ‘No’ means no, that you reap what you sow, that you 'catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.’ But how about having a high school exit exam that seeks to find out if a graduate is ethical in their business practices. How about a standard that says 'all children will exit this grade treating each other with respect and dignity.'"

Favorite Teaching Tool:
"My costumes, my books and my computer."

Favorite Web site:
Enchanted Leaning – www.enchantedlearning.com