Kansas Master Teacher scheduled for March 10

The Kansas Master Teacher Award will celebrate its 51th anniversary this year with the induction of seven new teachers.

Emporia State University has honored 369 teachers since the annual award was founded. According to awards committee chairman Scott Waters, Kansas Master Teachers are educators who have "served the profession long and well, and who also typify the good qualities of earnest and conscientious teachers."

Nominations come from local teacher associations, educational organizations and colleagues. A committee representing educational organizatiosn across Kansas select the finalists in February. The seven chosen teachers will be honored with a day of tours, seminars and receptions March 16 at Emporia State University.

Bank of America has underwritten the Kansas Master Teachers program for over 20 years.

KANSAS MASTER TEACHERS 2004

Mary Elizabeth Baker
Robert M. Martin Elementary School
Andover

A veteran Australian teacher, Mrs. Mary Baker came to Andover in 1995, where she is presently a reading specialist at Robert M. Martin Elementary School.She considers her students to be her most important teachers. “As I teach, I learn to listen and to observe, to prompt and reaffirm, to modify my language and my practice. I am continuing to grow, and it is my students who are guiding me.” Baker is an avid pilot and a member of the International Women’s Pilot Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association. She is a Sunday school teacher and active church volunteer.

Luana J. Bitter
Pratt High School
Pratt

Luana Bitter’s educational philosophy draws from the outdoor experiences of her childhood. She fondly remembers hunting and fishing trips with her family and her 18-year involvement with Girl Scouts. Quoting from a favorite hymn, Mrs. Bitter says, “I believe in teaching real-life concepts to my students to open their minds to ‘all things bright and beautiful,’ and I believe in respecting the diversity of my students and developing the unique talents of each individual.” Since 1973, Mrs. Bitter has taught physical education, health, anatomy, physiology, general science, environmental science, psychology and biology in Pratt. She was a physical education and health teacher in Syracuse from 1969 to 1972.

Patricia Madden Grzenda
Lawrence Public Schools
Lawrence

As an adaptive physical educator, Patricia Grzenda works with a team of specially-trained colleagues to discover and build upon the strengths of her students with cognitive and physical disabilities. Grzenda has been an itinerant teacher for the entire Lawrence school district since 1997, and has also distinguished herself both as a coach. Her swimming teams have been perennial state champions. In 1998, she was awared the Federation of Interscholastic Coaches Association national boys swimming coach of the year. She has also been named the 1998 Kansas Coaches Association boys swimming coach of the year in 1997 and 2001.

Nicki Hancock
Olathe East High School
Olathe

Nicki Hancock draws her energy from her student’s achievements. “Their success thrills them, and I am delighted when a student learns to use an apostrophe correctly or shows me a new aspect of Macbeth or revises a college application essay…Those moments are the true reward for teaching.” Hancock is a 12th grade English teacher at Olathe East High School and has taught in Olathe since 1978. She is instrumental in helping student prepare for college through her Advanced Placement classes, which teach critical thinking and analytical reading strategies. Her high school courses earn students college credit at a local community college through the four-year-old “College Now” program.

Greg Mittman
Valley Center Middle School
Valley Center

Students in Greg Mittman’s eighth grade social studies classes learn about the world by experiencing it first hand. In the classroom, students re-create historic battles, court trials and hypothetical city governments. Outside the classroom, they have traveled with Mr. Mittman to historic sites in Texas, Massachusetts, Washington, England, France and Germany. Mittman is a major in the Army National Guard after 19 years of service. He has led soldiers overseas and in response to domestic disasters such as the 1999 Wichita/Haysville tornado, the 1993 Manhattan flood and the 1991 Andover tornado. Mittman lives his own civics lessons. In 1998, Mr. Mittman was appointed the youngest councilman in the history of the City of Bel Aire. He has been re-elected twice. He graduated from the first Bel Aire Citizens Police Academy and is secretary of the Bel Aire Public Development and Finance Corporation Board of Directors.

Devra Parker
Medicine Lodge High School
Medicine Lodge

Devra Parker does not necessarily consider herself a teacher in the traditional sense. “I impart information in an honest, enthusiastic and unique fashion with the hope (students) will want to be in my classroom every day.” An English teacher at Medicine Lodge High School since 1988, Mrs. Parker assigns her 11th grade students to get in touch with themselves and their community by writing about random acts of kindness in their town, their ancestors, and local elders through the Journal Elder Writing Project. Outside the classroom, Parker reaches out to teens by coaching forensics, coaching volleyball and sponsoring several student organizations. She is also active in her church and in community groups such as the city swimming pool, community disaster drills and the Tri-Annual Memorial Peace Treaty Pageant.

Patricia Diane Weidert
Walnut Elementary School
Emporia

Patricia Weidert has taught elementary school students in Kansas and Iowa since 1971, using a variety of methods to suit their learning styles. “I believe that as teachers, we need to give each child an opportunity to learn,” she said. “It may be through music, a hands-on orientation, a visual or tactile strategy, or pairing with a peer for better understanding of a concept.” Weidert engages her students through participating in Read Across America and the local Young Writer’s Conference, through designing art projects that involve student’s families, and through inviting community leaders into her classroom to share their own expertise.

 

Last Updated July 2, 2007>