Nancy Kathryn Ackerman
New Mexico Teacher of the Year
Santa Teresa Elementary, Santa Teresa, NM
All grades, Reading Process Trainer

My teaching philosophy
I believe that each child comes to school with their own unique set of special needs. Academic needs range all the way from exceptionally slow learners to gifted and talented students. This range places special demands upon us. Children's personal needs are equally as demanding. In education today, we must be ready to deal with abusive home situations, children or parents with drug problems, gang violence, single parent homes, and the list goes on. I believe that these issues are challenges to be met and overcome, not excuses for being unable to teach our students. Every child comes to school wanting to learn. I feel a tremendous personal desire to make sure that every child achieves their maximum potential.

My philosophy in action
With all of the various needs of our students in mind, I try first to make sure that the children know they are in a safe, secure environment. I purposely spend a lot of time on building community so that my students feel free to ask any question and be risk-takers. We are a community of learners that care about each other and are eager to face new challenges together.

Parents are an extremely important part of our team. I encourage parents to visit our class as often as possible. Parents have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share and I want them to feel welcome in our classroom.

Teaching is my passion. In order to do the best possible job of teaching, I must continually be learning. Not only is learning important, but sharing that knowledge with our colleagues is equally important. I am totally committed to the concept of TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More.

My greatest teaching accomplishment
As a coordinator for Gifted and Talented studies at my campus in the early 1990's, I realized the need to revitalize our program. My principal gave me the challenge of coming up with an innovative program that would meet our students' needs.

I sent a letter to my colleagues asking for volunteers to help research and implement a new program. As it turned out, we had two people from every grade level offer their help. We spent several months seeking out information from other schools, private schools, and out-of-town campuses that had successful programs.

After much research, we sat down to the job of curriculum design. The program that we designed asked for parental and student commitment to an advanced curriculum. I think that the best part of the program was that it was not limited to only gifted and talented students. Any student who felt that the rigorous challenge of our RECIPE (Rigorous Educational Curriculum Including Parents and Enrichment) classes were admitted. Every grade level had one "RECIPE" class and those classes routinely were involved with all of the other classes on our campus.

The program gained enough notoriety that we were asked to present the "RECIPE" class concept at the West Texas Association of Gifted and Talented Conference.

The most critical issue facing educators today
Our great nation is facing several major public education issues today. We need to improve the academic performance of all students, especially our disadvantaged students. Reading programs and math and science instruction need to be improved. Teacher quality needs to be enhanced. Standardized testing and accountability issues need to be addressed. All of these issues must be addressed in order to make real changes and ensure success for our students.

Ways to resolve this issue
I have chosen to focus on the "No Child Left Behind" initiative to improve literacy by putting reading first and how the Gadsden Independent School District has chosen to implement their district-wide Balanced Literacy Program. The Balanced Literacy Approach includes the entire language arts curriculum. The curriculum is adjusted to meet each individual child's needs. Since children are reading at their own level of ability they are able to make the connections so vital for comprehension and therefore they progress successfully and quickly. The principals in our district overwhelmingly agreed to begin the Balanced Literacy Approach in their schools at the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year and all schools are now on the same sheet of music. I applied for the position of Reading Process Trainer for the initiative and I am extremely pleased to have been selected as a member of the Balanced Literacy team. Fourteen other trainers and I have been assigned to specific campuses where we will be training our teachers in Balanced Literacy methodologies. We have received extensive training and will continue to attend training sessions to be as effective as possible for our teachers. I find myself modeling different strategies at different grade levels to facilitate learning a new program not only for our teachers, but for our students as well. I can see "No Child Left Behind" with this approach and I am so very proud to be a member of such a foreword-thinking district.

One thought to inspire other teachers to succeed
The power that each of us has as teachers is enormous. We must continue to learn ourselves so that we build a community of learners who will eventually become our nation's leaders.

One lesson every student should learn
Never settle for less than your best!

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