The 2012 Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence Recipients

Congratulations to the 2012 recipients of the Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence! Each was awarded $10,000 and recognized at the NEA Foundation's Salute to Excellence in Education Gala on February 10, 2012. These educators were among 35 educators nominated by their NEA state, federal, and direct affiliates. Below you can watch their videos that were created by their students with the help of digital arts training from Pearson Foundation.

Lisa Esquibel

Kindergarten Teacher
Davis Elementary School
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Wyoming Education Association Awardee

How many ways can kindergartens count to 10? In Lisa Esquibel’s class, the sky is the limit. Her students start by reciting ordinal numbers, “one, two, three,” while one student plays teacher and prompts them with a pointer. Next, they count down from 10, “three, two, one, blastoff,” and they jump up into the air.

These students can count in Spanish, too, “uno, dos, tres.”  Because their school is the home to the deaf and hard of hearing program, they know basic American Sign Language. So then, they sign.           

Esquibel delves into picture books from around the world adding geography and cultural understanding to this multidisciplinary lesson. The class learns that there is a whole different way of counting in China using traditional characters. “Show me eight fingers,” Esquibel says, and the students happily comply. “Let’s pretend we are in a village in Africa and we want to buy eight oranges. They use a different kind of sign language. Show me four fingers on one hand, and wave it twice. That’s how they do it in Africa.”

Esquibel earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wyoming in 2001 and an English as a Second Language Endorsement from the same institution in 2010. In 2004, she received her Master of Arts in Teaching from Grand Canyon University. She also has had Collaborative Literacy Intervention Project Certification (CLIP) since 2006. Currently, Esquibel is the president of her local union, and she serves on the WEA Board of Directors. She is a representative assembly delegate at both the state and national levels.
 

Watch Esquibel's student-made video.

Jonathan Gillentine

Early Childhood Educator
Reverend Benjamin Parker School
Kaneohe, Hawaii
Hawaii State Teachers Association Awardee

Preschoolers in Jonathan Gillentine’s classroom are learning that physics is fun and so is learning!  As they manipulate wooden blocks of different sizes and shapes, ramps, and small rubber balls, the students explore the law of gravity. Does the ball move all by itself if the ramp is flat? What if you blow on it; will it move then? If you put a block under the ramp, what happens? 

Next comes creative time, during which Gillentine gives the students an even wider array of shapes, cones and cornices among them, with which they can experiment. He introduces a book on architecture and facilitates a discussion about the shapes they have seen and can identify. “I want them to be seen as more than ‘cute,’” he says. “This is prime learning time. I introduce inquiry and creativity to help them become critical thinkers.” The educator also wants his students to experience wonder, be responsible, and have respect for the land and sea. “Ohana” means family, he reminds them. In this classroom, they all are, working together and sharing ideas.                   

Gillentine was recognized with a Zula International Early Science Educator Award in 2010 (NSTA) and as an Outstanding Early Childhood Practitioner (NAECTE) in 2007. He earned his PhD in Education from the University of Hawaii Manoa in 2005 and National Board Certification as an Early Childhood Generalist in 2003. He has published three juried articles. His research has focused on appropriate touch by K-3 teachers as well as narrative and reflection tools for teacher growth. He has been a school grievance representative since 1996, has been an NEA Representative Assembly delegate, and has served on the HSTA Board of Directors.

Watch Gillentine's student-made video.

Cara Haney

Kindergarten Teacher
Panther Lake Elementary
Kent, Washington
Washington Education Association Awardee

Students in Cara Haney’s class pair off as “Peanut Butters” and “Jellies” because they are a natural match. She encourages her students to work in teams so that they can be successful and become more confident.    

Today, she tells the class, we are all going to learn about parts, whole objects, and how they fit together. This is part of scientific observation, she adds.  There are five ways to observe using our senses. We use our senses to gather information about our world. Haney distributes sets of pictures such as the leaf, stem, petals, and center of a flower as well as the parts of a sports car and a pick-up truck. The teams first group the parts of the wholes together.  They then resort by color, size, shape, and type. “Bits and pieces are other words for parts,” she says. To reinforce the lesson, Haney reads aloud a story about a badger, a mouse, an otter, and a shrew who are trying to repair a “jalopy doppy.”  

Most of Haney’s students are English Language Learners. Or they come from unstable homes and lack the support structures necessary for school success. “I provide an inclusive environment so that my students can discover who they are meant to be as kindergarteners. Too many are thrust early into adult roles at home as their parents struggle with addictions, juggle multiple minimum wage jobs, and navigate through a new society.“ 

Haney received a B.A. in psychology in 1993 and a Master’s in Teaching in 1997 from Seattle University. In 2006, she earned National Board Certification as an Early Childhood Generalist. Haney serves on the executive board of her local union and is a WEA and NEA delegate.  She also belongs to the NEA Early Childhood Caucus.   

Watch Haney's student-made video.

Danielle Kovach

Second through Fourth Grade Special Education Teacher
Tulsa Trail Elementary School
Hopatcong, New Jersey
New Jersey Education Association Awardee

The incubated eggs in the classroom are almost ready to hatch. So, Danielle Kovach is teaching a “chicken unit” to her students today. The students share what they like to eat for breakfast and why. Using her Smart Pad, Kovach shows a video of a farmer putting an egg under a hen. “Who lays eggs, a rooster or a hen,” she asks. “What words go with this picture?” As the students respond, she reveals their vocabulary words for the lesson which include eggs, nest, one, and two. She says that when she uses technology, the students stay actively engaged.

Kovach then projects a book called The Hen onto the screen and begins to read it aloud. The students are encouraged to stand and flap their wings when they hear one of today’s words. At the end of the story, the hen is happy because all of her eggs are safe and in the nest.  When asked what makes them happy, the students mention summer vacation, finding $20, a new puppy, and a nap. Their “writing fun time” assignment is to recall those stories.  There are smiles all around as they begin.  

At Kutztown University, Kovach earned a Mentally/Physically Handicapped/Elementary B.S.Ed in 1997. She was awarded a M.Ed., in Special Education from East Stroudsburg University in 2002 and an M.A. in Educational Technology from New Jersey City University in 2007. She was the New Jersey Teacher of the Year in 2010-11. Active in her local union, Kovach is the Secretary, Project PRIDE Coordinator, and School Budget Elections Committee Chair. She also sits on the Elections Steering Committee.

Watch Kovach's student made video.

Jeff Peneston

Ninth Grade Teacher
Liverpool High School
Liverpool, New York
New York State United Teachers Awardee

The ninth graders can hardly believe their eyes when they walk in and see a stream, six feet in length, flowing through Jeff Peneston’s classroom. “It’s time to get wet, and maybe a little dirty,” he says. The fabricated stream is there to teach a panning for gold lesson. Peneston has placed over 300 pounds of sand, iron ore, pebbles, and small grains of iron pyrte (fool's gold) from the Adirondack Mountains, in the stream bed to teach about density. 

Peneston hands each student a penny and tells the class that a gold nugget of the same weight would be worth $150. As his own harmonica and banjo track plays in the background, the educator demonstrates how to fill a miner’s pan and then “dance, tilt, and chase” the heavier pieces to the bottom.  Coarse sand, which has a low density, drips over the edge. One team tries the technique while the other team coaches. Panning for gold is still popular in New York, he tells the students. In South Africa where they dry pan and in Guinea, it is a viable way to make a living.  

Peneston is the 2011 New York State Teacher of the Year. As a 2008 PolarTREC Teacher, he went on an international expedition to Antarctica. In 2004, he won the national first place award in the NEC Extreme Science: The Perfect Science Classroom Competition. He earned a BA at State University of New York in 1981 and an MS from the University of Vermont-School of Natural Resources in 1983. He was a PhD candidate at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1986. Peneston has been a member of the United Liverpool Faculty Association, NYSUT, and NEA/AFT since 1986 and became more active in recent years.

Watch Peneston's student-made video.