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LTF Teacher and Trainer Of The Year Awards

January 22, 2013

After receiving a number of incredible applications from teachers and trainers around the country, the team at Laying the Foundation has chosen the six recipients for the 2012 LTF Teacher and Trainer of the Year Awards. Read the full press release here.

 
  • Mary Pennington, Math Teacher
  • Jeanne Parlangeli, Science Teacher
  • Emily Howell, English Teacher
  • Marianne Cavanaugh, Math Trainer
  • Robert Gonzales, Science Trainer
  • Barbara Abbe, English Trainer
MARY PENNINGTON, MATH TEACHER OF THE YEAR
  Mary Pennington attended the University of Texas at Austin and graduated from the UTeach Program in December 2006. In January 2007, right after graduation, she started teaching mathematics at Pflugerville High School, where she has been ever since. “I am very fortunate to get to do a job that I love every single day,” says Mary. “Setting high expectations for my students, and then helping them to meet my standards is truly rewarding, and I love watching my students experience a 'light bulb moment.’”
JEANNE PARLANGELI, SCIENCE TEACHER OF THE YEAR
  Jeanne Parlangeli motivates and inspires students in her Pre-AP and AP Physics classes with her enthusiasm and love of learning. With 34 years of classroom experience, Jeanne seeks to open the eyes of her students and be a mentor that will be “the wind beneath their wings.” Jeanne graduated from Southwest Texas University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry. As a life-long learner, she has participated in numerous summer programs and institutes. She was the 2011 Teacher of the Year at Dobie High School. and a 2007-2008 Toyota Tapestry Grant Award recipient. Since 2005, Jeanne has been involved with the LTF science program, first as a teacher, and later as a trainer and a trainer of trainers. She credits the connections developed in the LTF program with helping her focus her teaching, and she believes that her goal as a trainer is to help empower other teachers to implement the program with their students.
EMILY HOWELL, ENGLISH TEACHER OF THE YEAR
  As a second-grader, Emily Howell’s favorite pastime was teaching her stuffed animals and dolls. “God instilled a love for teaching in me at a young age,” says Emily. She has had the joy of teaching regular level and Pre-AP English I for six years in the Freshman Academy at Ruston High School, the only high school in a small rural town in North Louisiana, where she lives with her husband Jason. In the summer of 2009, she attended her first Laying the Foundation Training and has not looked back since. The 2012 Louisiana High School Teacher of the Year, Emily says that LTF provided her with the knowledge, strategies, and critical thinking skills that have kindled a passion for her subject area that will not be quenched.
MARIANNE CAVANAUGH, MATH TRAINER OF THE YEAR
  An educator since 1975, Marianne Cavanaugh was the 1998 Connecticut Teacher of the Year, the 1998 Middle School Teacher of the Year, and the 1998 winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. Since 1998, she has been an adjunct at the University of Connecticut, where she teaches the freshman engineering calculus block. She is now the coordinator for Calculus 1A and 1B. From 2004 to 2008, she was the mathematics department head for grades 7-12 at East Hartford High School. In 2008, she became the Project Opening Doors Connecticut Math Content Director. Marianne has presented more than 300 workshops with an emphasis on differentiation, problem solving and math content. She is a published author, writing two chapters for Corwin Press in The Parallel Curriculum Units for Mathematics. In 2008, she became a certified LTF Trainer and continued her training for Years 2–4—one of the most exciting developments in her career thus far.
ROBERT GONZALES, SCIENCE TRAINER OF THE YEAR
  Robert Gonzales is a graduate of the UTeach Program at UT Austin. He has worked in Austin ISD for nine years, taking two years out of the chemistry classroom to be a department chair and instructional coach. He currently teaches chemistry in the Academy for Global Studies, a small learning community within Austin High School affiliated with the Asia Society as part of the International Studies School Network. Robert is an LTF Chemistry T^4 Trainer.
BARBARA ABBE, ENGLISH TRAINER OF THE YEAR
  Born and raised in the West Texas towns of Tahoka and Lubbock, Barbara Abbe attended Texas Tech University, where she received two degrees, a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1978 and a Master of Education in 1981. She spent her entire career of thirty-two years with the Lubbock Independent School District. Thirty of those years were spent on the campus of Mackenzie Middle School. Barbara was honored as the Lubbock Independent High School Secondary Teacher of the Year in 2007 and the Texas Education Association Region 17 Secondary Teacher of the Year in 2008. She retired from Lubbock ISD in May of 2011.
 
Thank you to all of the teachers and trainers who applied for these awards and to the administrators and other education professionals who sent in nominations and letters of recommendation.