Annette Peretzman, kindergarten teacher at DuFief Elementary School in Gaithersburg, is this year’s recipient of the Shirley J. Lowrie “Thank You for Teaching” Award.
Peretzman is in her 40th year teaching with MCPS. Students in her classroom love learning. It is a place where students can take risks, collaborate and work together, and succeed at high levels academically. She also works hard to build a community with parents and other teachers. A highly respected member of the staff, she has served as team leader several times, serves as a resource to colleagues and frequently volunteers to mentor new teachers.
She is incredibly nurturing to her students, and a skillful, supportive teacher. She greets each student when they walk in her classroom in the morning. She is an expert at instilling the love of lifelong learning in the youngest students, and she works hard to lay the groundwork for continued academic success for them. She also is concerned about students’ social development. Her manner is effective, calm and positive. Parents have described her as thoughtful, responsive and observant.
One parent called her adept at guiding students’ academic achievement while keeping in mind the developmental needs of 5 and 6 year old children. “She is encouraging, realistic, and perhaps most importantly, was always able to put our kids’ current struggles into perspective without creating any anxiety in our kids or us,” she wrote. She is able to reassure parents about their children’s transition to school, and communicates regularly to act as a sounding board or suggest strategies to help.
Of Peretzman, DuFief first grade teacher Vicki Ellison wrote: “Each and every day Annette teaches those around her in a natural and effortless manner. I’ve always believed the best complement I could give a teacher is to say I would want my own child to be a student in his/her classroom. With Annette I have to take that a step further. I myself would have loved to have been a student in her classroom.”
The annual “Thank You for Teaching” awards are made possible through the Shirley J. Lowrie Memorial Fund, established at the Community Foundation for Montgomery County. Lowrie taught for several years as a teacher and substitute teacher in California and Connecticut before relocating with her family to Potomac.
Board Approves 16 Administrative Appointments
At its business meeting on May 10, the Board of Education approved the following administrative appointments:
- Amy S. Cropp, director, Division of Prekindergarten, Special Programs, and Related Services
- Anne M. Dardarian, Liaison for MCPS Professional Growth—MCAAP
- Rhonda C. Dillard, supervisor, Science, Technology, and Engineering
- Joanna M. Dwin, supervisor, Department of Special Education Services
- Tracee N. Hackett, supervisor, Resolution and Compliance Unit
- Karen C. Woodson, supervisor, Pre-K–12 ESOL
- Kimberly M. Boldon, principal, Thomas S. Wootton High School
- James N. D’Andrea, principal, Northwest High School
- Arthur Williams, principal, Springbrook High School
- Stephanie D. Brant, principal, Woodfield Elementary School
- Stacey M. Brown, principal, William Tyler Page Elementary School
- Spencer Delisle, principal, Beverly Farms Elementary School
- Margaret S. Prin, principal, Maryvale Elementary School
- Patrick E. Scott, principal, Strawberry Knoll Elementary School
- Jolynn E. Tarwater, principal, Brooke Grove Elementary School
- Travis J. Wiebe, principal, Wyngate Elementary School
Westland Middle School Principal Recognized by Media Specialists’ Group
From left to right, Janet Biggs, media assistant; Alison Serino, principal; Sarah Salnick, media specialist; and Catherine Cecere, media assistant.
Alison Serino, principal at Westland Middle School, has been honored with the Nancy C. Walker Award for Outstanding Support to a Library Media Program for the 2015–2016 school year. The award is given annually by the Montgomery County Educational Media Specialists Association (MCEMSA) to highlight the role by administrative leaders in supporting library media centers.
Sarah Salnick, the media specialist at Westland, admires how Serino’s actions positively influence the media center and the school. Serino encourages Salnick’s participation in all of the School Library Media programs as well as her role with the Middle Years Programme (MYP) curriculum. She recognizes and communicates to the leadership team that Salnick is a valuable resource for the entire school. Serino champions the media center’s use “for teaching and learning … and a shared space for all stakeholders.” She encourages students to visit the media center whenever possible. Serino’s connection with staff and students comes from earning their respect through her own actions. “She makes us a top priority,” says Westland seventh grader Alexandra Filas.
Serino not only actively endorses the inclusion of world languages in the media center (impressing the International Baccalaureate Educator Network), but also shares any new technology she has learned with staff through enthusiastic modeling. Inspired by Serino’s strategic plan to “provide human and material resources to students and families to increase access and connectedness to Westland,” the media center hosted Westland’s first Family Reading Night. Serino helped plan and advertise the event and attended with her family.
Serino expands her love of books and reading by creating a bonding experience with the entire school. Her schoolwide book program, “… unites us on a theme or issue that we value,” says Salnick. “When we read The Running Dream, we learned about recognizing different peoples’ gifts. When we read A Long Walk to Water, we raised our consciousness about water scarcity locally and abroad. This past summer’s approach, with an online class, enabled students to view videos, read articles, analyze photos and assess their own water usage. It was a meaningful lead-in to our work this fall.”
Daly Elementary School Receives Award for Superior School Facility Maintenance
Capt. James E. Daly Elementary School received the Silver Hammer Award from Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot for demonstrating fiscal prudence through superior school facility maintenance.
See video of the presentation.
“We are humbled to receive the Silver Hammer Award from Comptroller Franchot,” said Daly Principal Nora Dietz. “Almost every week when visitors come to Daly they say ‘Wow this is a new school’! I proudly say, no, she is 27 years old and we take very good care of her.”
Created by Comptroller Peter Franchot in 2010, the Silver Hammer Award is presented to school custodians for their work and to their principals for supporting that work.
“I would like to thank Daly Elementary School and their superb maintenance team, not only for the impressive superior maintenance rating they received, but also for the commitment and care that they demonstrate every day by taking care of this beautiful school,” said Franchot. “In a time when our State continues to have limited financial resources to meet all school construction and maintenance needs, it is great to have schools like Daly Elementary that are dedicated to providing a clean, safe, and healthy learning environment for their students.”
“At Daly our motto is ‘Every Student is a Daly Success.’ The work that my building service team, Maira Garcia Thompson; Oswaldo Morales; Juan Cruz; Dennis Dorsey and Jose Jandres perform every day exudes excellence and ensures our students are successful,” said Dietz.
Built in 1989, Daly is a 78,210-square-foot facility. The school earned a 92.7 percent rating on its most recent maintenance report. The exterior building appearance, structural condition, windows, doors, and plumbing systems earned superior ratings from state inspectors. Inspectors praised the condition of the air conditioning equipment and the elevator.
Educators Honored at National Board Certification Ceremony
Twenty-one MCPS educators who received certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in 2015 were celebrated during a pinning ceremony on April 29. This brings the number of Board-certified teachers in MCPS to 706.
Montgomery County far surpasses all other districts in Maryland, and MCPS is ranked eighth in the top 30 districts for the total number of National Board-certified educators.
National Board Certification, a voluntary program established by NBPTS, is achieved through a performance-based assessment that typically takes more than a year to complete. It is designed to measure what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. The process requires teachers to demonstrate how their activities, both inside and outside the classroom, strengthen student performance and contribute to student achievement.
Educators earn National Board Certification after completing a series of assessments that include teaching portfolios, student work samples, videotapes, and rigorous analyses of their classroom teaching and student learning. Candidates also complete a series of written exercises that probe the depth of their subject-matter knowledge and their understanding of how to teach those subjects to their students.
