Fie K. Budzinsky - 1996 Connecticut Teacher of the Year.
Ms. Budzinsky teaches Chemistry at Portland High School in Portland, CT. Her passionate feelings about teaching center around four main beliefs: all students can learn science; students are more different than alike; students learn best when allowed to construct knowledge, participate in real-world applications, and work in an environment that provides opportunities to explore and integrate knowledge and ideas from many disciplines; and, more effort must be directed toward the disadvantaged student. "I want to show students what it looks like when people love what they do," says Budzinsky. She continues: "If I am an outstanding teacher, it is because I am constantly working to become one." Her work with students goes beyond the classrooms of Portland High School. She is adapting her nationally awarded unit, "The Fine Arts of Chemistry," for a "chemistry on stage" tour of district and neighboring elementary schools involving student volunteers from her classes. In 1996 she will be a teacher/facilitator for the National Research Center for Gifted Education at the University of Connecticut. Budzinsky is also actively involved with the Connecticut State Department of Education in the development of support and performance-based assessment activities for beginning science teachers, and is a Cooperating/Mentor Teacher. "The role of teachers as disseminators of information must change to one of facilitators of minds," says Budzinsky. "I am optimistic that it is only hard work that stands between the schools as they exist today and what we know they should be tomorrow."
Daniel H. Durbin - 1996 Indiana Teacher of the Year.
Mr. Durbin teaches Literature, Writing and Communication at the F. J. Reitz High School in Evansville, IN. According to Durbin effective teaching is not isolated to a classroom but connected to everyday relationships. "In order for students to focus on learning they must first resolve outside distractions that can range from physical needs to emotional needs," says Durbin. His solutions have ranged from creating a clothing bank for students to finding jobs for those who need them desperately or merely spending time helping students find their own solutions. Widely in demand as a lecturer and consultant, Durbin presents on topics as varied as ethics in education, multi-cultural classrooms, learning styles and holistic curriculum development. His speech and debate program serves as an extension of the classroom. Regardless of socioeconomic background, race or gender, students are given opportunities to define, refine, and apply concepts in a practical setting. The forensic team has over 150 members making it the largest such program in the United States. In 1994 Durbin was given the distinguished service award by the National Forensic League. "To prepare Americans to meet the challenges of the 21st century will require the formation of partnerships between the home, the school and the community as well as require us to redefine our mission as parents, educators and citizens," says Durbin. "Our success will come in joining forces to educate the whole student: the mind, the body and the spirit. Together we can develop well-informed, open-minded caring human beings that are willing and able to carry the torch of a democratic society," says Durbin.
Mary Beth Blegen - 1996 Minnesota Teacher of the Year.
Ms. Blegen teaches History, Humanities and Writing at Worthington Senior High School in Worthington, MN. In her years of teaching in this small, southwestern Minnesota community, Blegen has watched her town evolve from a white, middle class, conservative, agrarian community to one in which her students come from many ethnic and language backgrounds and more people work in factories than on farms. "I have come to believe that the most important thing I can do for students is to allow them a chance for self-discovery," says Blegen. "Whether the topic is the Reformation or Vietnam, Monet or Picasso, Sophocles or August Wilson, I help kids to realize that the world is connected and that they are a part of that world, that what they have to say is valuable and that hearing their voice on paper or in class helps them to begin to know themselves and to begin their own search." The walls of her room are covered with posters featuring everyone from Einstein to Martin Luther King to her students' senior pictures or candid shots of life in school. "It's when kids and I work together that something happens -- that ideas take shape," says Blegen. "My goal is to expose kids to a multitude of ideas and situations while asking them to connect, create and analyze." According to Blegen, one of the biggest challenges that education now faces is how to make school meaningful and relevant to all students. "We teachers are here to serve the needs of the students, not awaken them to our truth," says Blegen. "Public education should offer students one opportunity after another to begin to figure out their world and where they fit in it."
Patricia J. Cygan - 1996 Washington Teacher of the Year.
Pat Cygan teaches Social Studies at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle, WA. Her own family background with Hawaiian, Portuguese, Greek, Chinese and English roots has well prepared Ms. Cygan for her leadership role in the development and institutionalization of multi-cultural education in Seattle-area schools as well as the satisfaction she derives from working with Seattle's multi- ethnically and socioeconomically diverse student population. "I believe that I am a cog in the giant wheel social scientists call the socialization process," says Cygan. "Like all adults, I have educative obligations to transmit our culture's history and expectations to our newest members." Cygan believes that her success as a Social Studies teacher is measured by how well she helps students to understand themselves, others and the interplay of human beings with natural forces. "My most effective methods come through having students reenact world events in my classroom," says Cygan. "I like to have my students assume roles in history so that they can vicariously experience other people's situations and dilemmas." Cygan is a frequent in-service presenter, has served as the Head of Seattle Public Schools' Social Studies Curriculum Office for seven years and was recently appointed to the Social Studies Subject Area Committee for Washington State's Commission on Student Learning. "Democracy creates niches of responsibility for a nation's citizens," says Cygan. "Teaching students all of the relevant skills and information linkages that will ready them for active and skillful membership in our society and in the global marketplace are awesome responsibilities for us to accomplish."
