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Home > Archive > Mar 13, 2008

Fossil Ridge Fine Arts Team Wins Teachers of the Year
By Sharon May
Managing Editor
While Washington County School District students enjoyed their first day of spring break on Friday, March 7, their teachers gathered at Dixie High School for a day of professional development, beginning with celebrating the Teacher Team of the Year.
Selected as top among 10 team finalists was the team of fine arts teachers at Fossil Ridge Intermediate School. Comprising the team are Keven Pfunder, publishing arts; Mike Winslow, band and piano; Kris Barber, choir; Chad Baker, piano and beginning piano; and Marilyn Hawkins, string orchestra.
“The nature of the arts is collaboration,” Winslow said about his team. “We have to work together to see the students excel.”
Marshall Topham, assistant superintendent for secondary education, pointed out that popular movies – from “To Sir With Love” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus” to “Stand and Deliver” and “School of Rock” – have often portrayed the single individual teacher striving against the “evil” administration and other less-enlightened teachers. In a professional learning community model, however, these exceptionally effective teachers influence their schools as they collaborate with fellow teachers.
“The district remains committed to professional learning communities,” Topham said. “To keep teaching in isolation when we know data supports collaborative teaching is simply educational malpractice.”
Topham said teaching is no longer an isolated career, where teachers are evaluated on the quality of their lessons. The focus has shifted to child achievement – and accountability for students’ learning.
In the PLC model, teachers work in collaborative teams (usually by subject area in secondary education) to put into effect research-based “best practices” to achieve student learning. “Power standards” based on the statewide core curriculum are collaboratively developed, as well as common assessments to measure student success, with the goal of no student “falling through the cracks” that can occur when teachers work independent of one another.
Reflecting this change of focus, the district is in its second year of honoring a team of teachers rather than a single teacher of the year. This year’s award recognized especially effective secondary teacher teams.
The process began with applications from 57 teacher teams, representing 260 teachers. A selection committee narrowed these teams to 10 finalists and made an onsite visit to interview and videotape each team. The team finalists each made a presentation demonstrating effective use of best practices in their discipline, and training videos were made from these presentations.
In addition to the wining fine arts team from Fossil Ridge, other finalists were: Dixie Middle School, CTE; Dixie Middle, Math; Fossil Ridge Intermediate, Science; Fossil Ridge, Special Ed.; Fossil Ridge Intermediate, language arts; Hurricane High School, language arts; Lava Ridge Intermediate, math; Lava Ridge Intermediate, Science; and Snow Canyon High, language arts.
Every teacher in the 57 applying teams was awarded a $100 bonus check.
Steve Wilson, CEO of Dixie Regional Medical Center and vice-chairperson of Foundation for Students of Washington County announced the winning teacher team.
“I want to say as a citizen, thank you for your dedication and commitment, for the job you do every day,” Wilson said, addressing all the teachers assembled for the awards ceremony.
Each member of the winning team received a check for $250, and a three-day, two-night trip for two adults to either Disneyland or Seaworld in Southern California was provided by Get Away Today Vacations of Ogden. Beehive Credit Union was a major contributor to the monetary awards, as was the Foundation for Students of Washington County.

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