‘Excellence in Teaching’ Award recipients, public education advocates honored during ‘A Night at the Museum’
 UEA President Kim Campbell (back, far left) joins Kathy Markham (front, far right) in honoring the 2007 “Excellence in Teaching” Award recipients. They are (back, left to right) Rhondalee Paskins, Joan McLaughlin, Jeffrey Bossard, Pamela Butterweck, and Mary Emett. Front (left to right) are Shelle Oliver, Pyper Garff, Christine Burrows, and Shanna Campbell. Not shown: Sandy Hayes. |
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During the course of each school year, North Ogden Jr. High School teacher Shanna Campbell takes a group of 12- to 15-year-old teenage student officers and magically molds them into aware, responsive student leaders who view their office not as a position of privilege, but as a responsibility to serve. Leaders learn quickly that wearing a school sweater doesn’t mean, “Look at me,” but rather, “Look around you. What can you do to make a difference?”
Box Elder Middle School has a huge ceramics shop with over 1,000 molds, 15 potter’s wheels, and six kilns. But it wasn’t always this way. Teacher Pamela Butterweck worked hard to build the program by scavenging molds from yard sales and second-hand stores, and even taught herself how to repair the school’s old, crumbling kilns. This program has been a haven for many students who felt they couldn’t do anything well anywhere else in the school.
Each spring, William Penn Elementary School teacher Pyper Garff transforms her first-graders into “superscientists” as they engage in a year-long study of investigation. Using their five senses, hypotheses are formed and data collected. Sunflowers, apples, and homemade slime are only a part of the experience to “record” and “discover” what lies around them in their own backyards.
William and Pat Child and the Utah Education Association honored Campbell, Butterweck, and Garff — along with seven other outstanding Utah educators — as “Excellence in Teaching” Award recipients during the 2007 UEA Convention. Mr. Child — the founder and sponsor of the awards — is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-day Saints in Washington, D.C. His daughter, Kathy Markham, presented this year’s awards with UEA President Kim Campbell. Award recipients — who are nominated by their peers and chosen based on their work with individual students or groups of students — were recognized during an all-new UEA-sponsored awards ceremony, “A Night at the Museum,” held at the Discovery Gateway children’s museum in Salt Lake City. Recipients received a $1,500 check, courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Child, and a crystal award.
“Excellence in Teaching” Award recipients for 2007 included:
- Jeffrey Bossard, Itineris Early College High School, Jordan School District
- Christine Burrows, Davis High School & Clearfield Alternative High School 3-6, Davis School District
- Pamela Butterweck, Box Elder Middle School, Box Elder School District
- Shanna Campbell, North Ogden Jr. High School, Weber School District
- Mary Emett, Fossil Ridge Intermediate School, Washington County School District
- Pyper Garff, William Penn Elementary School, Granite School District
- Sandy Hayes, South Summit Elementary School, South Summit School District
- Joan McLaughlin, Willow Canyon Elementary School, Jordan School District
- Shelle Oliver, Gunnison Valley Elementary School, South Sanpete School District
- Rhondalee Paskins, Granger High School, Granite School District
[Specific stories about each of the Award recipients can be found on the UEA website at www.utea.org.]
In addition to recognizing the state’s outstanding educators, the UEA presented Educators Mutual Insurance Association (EMIA) and anti-voucher advocates Lisa and Craig Johnson with UEA Honor Roll Awards. These awards are given to individuals and organizations that have provided outstanding service to education.
The Association honored EMIA for the company’s more than 70 years of service to the public education community, but also for creating a new insurance product to help new educators who have a 60 to 90-day waiting period before they are eligible for medical insurance in their school districts.
UEA Honor Roll Award recipients Lisa and Craig Johnson have been active in Utahns for Public Schools (UTPS), the state’s anti-voucher coalition, since the referendum petition drive was launched last March. While Craig designed software that enabled UTPS to verify petition signatures and has remained a technology consultant, Lisa took the lead on communications and has been the primary point of contact for media inquiries and the organizer for anti-voucher speakers and debates.
Kilo Zamora, executive director of the Inclusion Center for Communities and Justice (ICCJ), Salt Lake City, received the Charles E. Bennett UEA Human and Civil Rights Award for 2007. This award is presented to an individual who has engaged in human and civil rights activities that have benefited education and have had community-wide impact. The Inclusion Center, previously known as the National Conference for Communities and Justice, is widely known for its residential youth programs aimed at building inclusive communities. The organization works extensively in public and private schools, empowering youth to be advocates for one another.
Campbell also paid tribute to Hal Adams, the 2008 Utah Teacher of the Year. She said Adams, an educator at Grand County High School, “understands the importance of being a team player and the great things that can happen for kids when adults work together.”