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Lynn Story~Jared Polis teacher of the year
On 4/15/2008

Contributed by: Liz Keating on 4/16/2008

Lynn Story is an extraordinary educator! She has the enviable ability to create self-directed life-long learners. Her classroom learning and teaching is built on a mutual trust and respect for the individual learning styles of her students. She challenges each student; she is passionate about their well being and is truly their learning advocate, both inside and outside the classroom.

Lynn offers her students many extra activities outside the expected curriculum. These activities enrich and compliment the district and state standards that crowd every teacher's lesson plan books. One of the students' favorites is Pagemasters, a weekly writing time during lunch. A drop-in visit to Lynn's classroom during Wednesday lunch will find thirty to forty sixth graders writing, reading and sharing poems, stories, letters or journals. Over the last several years, six of her poetry students have won national competitions! Twice each year, Lynn produces a Poetry Café: a more formalized sharing that includes students in grades 4-6. The Lion's Gazette is another "extra" project of Lynn's. Sixth graders work after school on reporting, writing, publishing and circulating a large format newspaper each month. In addition to writing, Lynn promotes literacy through "Circles of Five" just-for fun book clubs which meet monthly for lunch/brownies and discussion. Over fifty percent of Leawood's sixth graders, boy and girls participate!

Lynn's passion is writing and many of her students share that passion by the end of the year in her classroom. She has students, now in high school and college, who still email her drafts and ask for feedback on their writing. She begins every school day with SEEDS, a Ralph Fletcher silent writing exercise. Literature confirms that free writing such as this is a powerful motivator for students. Lynn has several students who continue to request a whole day of SEEDS writing. What a wonderful thought!

After school, students "hang out" - in no hurry to leave the nurturing, fun conversations with Lynn. At holiday time she devotes an entire day at our locally-owned book store handpicking and purchasing a book for each of her students. Her connection with her students does not end when they leave sixth grade. The night before school starts every year, she calls every one of her "old" students entering Junior High or High School to wish them well as they begin a new school.

Innovation? It could be Lynn's middle name. Just go to her newly-created classroom blog (http://cocacolaclassroom.wikispaces.com/) and peruse her students' comments on their Latin American projects, or their concerns about the upcoming, weeklong Outdoor Lab. Literature circle threads give all students the opportunity to participate in book discussions. In the classroom, often it is same students who contribute. Online, at cocacolaclassroom, on the weekends or in the evenings, students are comfortable making their voices heard-even if they would not risk commenting "live."

Lynn collaborates not only with her teammate, but with district teachers online who need a mentor as they creep into Lynn's world of successful technology integration. Her generosity and the time it takes make me tired! She is a proven school leader, sitting on numerous school and community committees as well as serving on the Leawood Leadership team. She has been a mentor for student teachers and new teachers alike and has had a very positive impact on the overall school environment as we reach to create 21st century learners at Leawood.

I have decided that Lynn runs on no sleep as I have watched her do more and more with her students each year. A supportive husband probably helps, and maybe the four or five baseball games on the weekends where she watches her two boys are therapeutic down time. Lynn makes her life work, her family's life work and certainly the life of her students work. I am honored to be her colleague and her friend!

The Jared Polis Foundation was founded in 2000 to improve and expand access to education. Each year, the Jared Polis Foundation honors fifteen outstanding K-12 classroom teachers who work in the Colorado public school system. This year's Teacher Recognition Awards Ceremony will be held at the Westin Hotel in Westminster on Tuesday, May 6th from 4:30-6:00 p.m., which coincides with the 2008 National Teacher Appreciation Week. Lynn received a $1,000 award and an additional $1,000 was awarded to her school, Leawood Elementary School in Littleton.


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Showing 1 of 1 comments
Submitted By: Rebecca Zimmerman
posted on 4/17/2008 @ 9:34:07 AM
Rated Story
Wow! What an amazing teacher!
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Liz Keating

Denver , CO

Liz Keating has posted 132 stories and 0 comments since joining on 9/17/2006. Liz Keating 's average story rating is 4.96.
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