CARPENTERSVILLE-
On March 19, 2008 The District 300 Foundation had the pleasure to announce the Inaugural recipient for the
Distinguished Educator of the Year award. This year the award goes to Nancy Hatcher of Liberty Elementary School, a teacher for nineteen years in the District
300, who currently teaches literacy, kindergarten 1st and 2nd grades. This award
will annually honor a District 300 classroom educator who best meets the
award criteria and embodies the spirit of the District 300 Foundation in their work, which is to seek to enhance and extend
learning opportunities for all District 300 students.
The Foundation awarded an Innovation grant for Buddy Day Program at Liberty Elementary to Mrs.
Hatcher. The Buddy Day program matches older (4th or 5th graders) with 1st
grade students using a peer-mentoring framework. Mentor buddies are trained to teach their younger buddy language arts
skills using activities ranging from interactive writing, to reading to working on decoding skills.
Nancy has
been able to incorporate music and drama for instructional and professional development purposes and integrates technology
in every way imaginable. She implemented The Sock Writing Project which had students write to friends and
family members requesting socks for the needy. Students then sang songs to the donors and logged where socks were received
on a map. This taught the students not only to give back to people in need, but also essential reading
and writing skills.
Nancy inspires
teachers at Liberty as she is always willing to share her vast knowledge with staff conducting top-notch professional development
training. From book discussions on new teaching techniques to modeling in classrooms and videotaping the great teaching
taking place in our school to share with others, Nancy highlights the best of the best. As a District 300
mentor teacher Nancy exemplifies what it means to be supportive to new staff.
Nancy continually
seeks ways to obtain funding to improve reading and writing and address the needs of all learners. Nancy
researches new and innovative teaching techniques and seeks out strategies to differentiate instruction. She works one-on-one
with students to improve learning and collaboratively plans with her peers and uses local and state testing data to improve
instruction.
Mrs. Hatcher’s principal,
Ms. Kristin Corriveau had this to say about Mrs. Hatcher:
“Nancy’s eternal love of learning is evident by her continued dedication to seeking out and researching
current and up-and-coming trends in reading and writing. She is passionate about not only improving herself as a teacher,
but each and every teacher in our building. Liberty Elementary School has worked alongside Lincoln Prairie Elementary
to provide the highest quality professional development—and Nancy’s contributions have been enormous. Nancy makes personal
connections with each and every staff member and in return garners the utmost respect from our staff and staff throughout
the district. Nancy sets high standards for herself and others.”
The
nominees for this year's award were a very impressive group of District 300 educators, making the Selection Committee's work
very difficult. The quality and depth of Nancy's efforts to enhance learning opportunities for District 300 students particularly
impressed the committee along with the fact that she has sustained these efforts over a significant period of time. The Selection
Committee consisted of retired District 300 educators who after having had distinguished careers in public education themselves,
could fully appreciated Nancy's contributions.
The District 300 Foundation is proud and honored to be able to announce Nancy Hatcher as the District
300 Distinguished Educator of the Year. Mrs. Hatcher has been an inspiration to everyone she has touched.
She will be honored at the Annual Award Ceremony Spring Gala on Friday, April 25th at 6:00pm at the Raue
Center for the Arts. Tickets are available at www.rauecenter.org or for more information visit www.d300foundation.org .
