Diana Buter
2003 Iowa Teacher of the Year
Ms. Buter teaches eighth grade students reading and writing skills. She has been teaching for twenty years and currently teaches at Grinnell Middle School in Grinnell, Iowa.

What are your beliefs about teaching?
"I believe in the uniqueness and worth of every student. I also believe that effective teaching is based on positive relationships. Until students know that you genuinely care about them and that you respect them as unique individuals, most are not ready to accept and value your ideas. This concern for students must be genuine, it must emanate from the heart. Students can spot an impostor from a mile away!"

How are your beliefs incorporated in your teaching style?
"From the very first day of class, I set about building relationships with my students. I do this by valuing their uniqueness and worth as a person, by listening to and validating their ideas, by modeling the respect towards them that I expect in return, by appreciating their efforts and letting them know this on a regular basis and by creating a safe classroom environment in which their ideas will be accepted and respected by others."

What is your greatest teaching accomplishment?
"One of the units that is most gratifying for me to teach to my reading students is the study of literature by and about children of the Holocaust. The basis for our study is the Broadway adaptation of Anne Frank's Diary. We study and read the script as well as watch the firm version of the play. I supplement this study with a variety of video presentations on the Holocaust and the important lessons that can be learned from this period of history.

"I also include in our study poems from I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Each student has the opportunity to lead the class in a discussion of a poem written by a child who lived in the Terezin concentration camp. Each student colors and hangs a butterfly with the name and face of a child of the Holocaust. At the conclusion of the four-week unit, the student receives the complete biography of the child and shares with the class the fate of the child. Students discover that most of the children met their death in a cruel or painful way. We write poems based on the well-known Little Polish Boy photograph, take a virtual tour of Anne Frank's house, as well as engage in many other activities in this very powerful and moving unit."

What's the most critical issue facing educators?
"I believe the most critical issue facing education today is how best to attract and retain qualified, enthusiastic, young teachers and support them in becoming successful career educators. Across the nation, an average of 20% of new teachers leave the teaching profession within the first three years. In Iowa, the percentage is even higher at 28%. We are facing a critical teacher shortage in our country in the next eight to ten years and it is imperative that we begin now to fill our professional ranks with young, qualified teachers."

What do you think can be done to solve this issue?
"We need to lobby our legislators to address the issue of salaries that are dismally low, especially when compared to salaries of other professionals who have the same amount of education and years of experience. We need to provide strong mentors for our first-and second-year teachers to assist them in creating caring, productive environments in their classrooms. We know that a positive classroom climate is a precursor to effective learning."

One thought to inspire teachers to excel
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.' Henry Adams, Historian (1838-1948)."

One lesson every student should learn
"Every student should learn that he is a worthy, unique individual with special gifts. The teacher's task is to help the student unwrap the gifts while at the same time strengthening the student's area of weakness."

Favorite Teaching Tool
"Book, books and more books! Textbooks, trade books, picture books, student-designed books, novels, non-fiction books, pop-up books. You name it, I'll find a way to use it in the classroom."

Favorite Web site:
www.ncte.org – National Council for Teachers of English