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	Last updated 10/16/02

The NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence

2001 Finalist and Recipient of The Horace Mann–
NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence

Patricia Truman
NEA-Alaska

Patricia "Pat" Truman is an eighth-grade English language arts teacher at Palmer Junior Middle School in Palmer, Alaska. In her nearly three decades in education, she has taught kindergarten through eighth grade as a generalist, reading specialist, gifted/talented teacher, and language arts teacher. She is the 2001 Alaska Teacher of the Year, and has earned National Board Certification in early adolescent language arts.

While taking advantage of her rural school setting in such programs as an outdoor education course for Title I students, Ms. Truman also enables children to reach out beyond their immediate surroundings: "The biggest change since I began teaching 29 years ago is globalization and its influence on the teaching job. It creates connections . . . [like] online literary exchanges with Mexico, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Technology is an integral part of these students' and my world." Ms. Truman promotes the International Baccalaureate program, student government, and National Honor Society as additional ways for students to prepare themselves for real-world challenges.

Ms. Truman excels in connecting to her community. She has voluntarily taught evening ESL classes for adults and summer remedial courses for migrant students. She created "Middle Ground," a daily feature on a local radio station for middle school students, to promote their activities, ideas, and concerns; a similar program has now been initiated for high school students. She also implemented a program called "Parents as Writing Partners," in which she trains and mentors parents in writing instruction and assessment.

Ms. Truman is an active member of NEA-Alaska and the Matanuska-Susitna Education Association. She has been especially effective in advocating for public education at the state level, most recently by serving on the state Professional Teaching Practices Commission. She is a Quality School Consultant and an executive board member of the Alaska State Writing Consortium. She has also spoken before the state legislature on the need to treat teachers as professionals. This activity was one of many contributions noted by Rich Kronberg, president of NEA-Alaska, in his letter nominating Ms. Truman for the Award for Teaching Excellence: "The testimony she provided has been extremely important in moving a pro-public education agenda through an often hostile legislature," he wrote.

Mr. Kronberg also commented that among the many outstanding candidates for the state Teacher of the Year program, Ms. Truman's "dedication and commitment to her students and to her colleagues came through loudly and clearly." Indeed, she is on a mission to ensure that every student succeeds and is publicly recognized for their achievements. "My message to America is that public education is very successful," she says. "There is such bad press about public schools. If people think that is so, they should come and see me."

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