FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE N.R. #190, 4/15/98

Date: April 15, 1998

Contact: Irene Cromer

703/791-8720

FIRST YEAR TEACHERS HONORED WITH SALLIE MAE AWARD

Three first-year Prince William County Public Schools teachers have been selected to represent the school division in the Sallie Mae First Class Teacher Award program, administered by the American Association for School Administrators. One teacher from each state will be selected as the Sallie Mae First Class Teacher Award recipients. The program recognizes the performance of first-year teachers in the areas of instructional skills, interaction with students, communication skills and distinguishing characteristics that set them apart from their peers.

Heather Ann Sorem, Henderson Elementary School; Mary E. Chapla, Woodbridge Middle School; and Jennifer Piehler, Montclair Elementary School, will represent Prince William County Public Schools in this competition. They have also been designated as recipients of the Prince William County First-Year Teacher Award. Amy Jo Phillips, Marsteller Middle School; and Alison M. Davis, Stonewall Middle School were finalists for this honor.

Heather Ann Sorem, a fourth grade teacher at Henderson Elementary School, teaches math and science in the Spanish portion of the school's Foreign Language Immersion program. A 1997 graduate of the College of William and Mary with a B.A. in Spanish and elementary education, Sorem is uniquely qualified for her unusual position. As the only teacher in the school division to teach fourth grade in Spanish, she has had to develop, make or translate many of her materials. It was also necessary for her to translate the entire Prince William County math and science curriculums into Spanish. A product of Prince William County Public Schools, Sorem graduated from Osbourn Park High School and was recognized as the College of William and Mary's top senior education major.

Asked to offer advice to beginning teachers, Sorem says, "My advice for new teachers is simple: never underestimate the impact a child can bestow upon you....Expect the unexpected. Be humble. Listen to the ones whom we are called on to instruct, because their little daily life lessons will begin to create volumes."

Mary E. Chapla, seventh grade mathematics teacher at Woodbridge Middle school, suggests that other first-year teachers should "take time for themselves," and "work hard, but also work hard at balancing your teaching and your life." She has kept in touch with former classmates who are also beginning teachers and recommends that new teachers "seek out a mentor that works for you in your new school....I believe having good mentors is an important part of my development as a teacher."

A graduate of Clemson University with a B.S. in management, Chapla earned an M.Ed. in elementary education from James Madison University. She makes it a goal to attend at least one game of every sports team that includes her students and supports her students at their orchestra, band and choral concerts.

According to Woodbridge's principal Robert Stine, "Put a cart in front of Mary Chapla and you have a classroom where middle school students will thrive. In addition to the perils and pitfalls that can undermine the enthusiasm of the first-year teacher, Mary has the distinctive challenge of living from a small rolling cart because of the classroom shortage in our building. It didn't take her long to don a pair of comfortable athletic shoes and drive that cart, full of lessons, math manipulatives and anything else she can find to stimulate her seventh grade math students throughout the building, even from floor to floor!"

As a learning disabilities/inclusion teacher in three classes at Montclair Elementary School, Jennifer Piehler is called upon to co-teach with three different teachers. "She has had to connect her instruction to the units of study of each grade level and, at the same time, meet the individual needs of her diverse learners," says Principal Darci Whitehead-Scanlon.

Piehler, a graduate of Providence College with a B.A. in elementary special education, serves as coordinator of the school's tutorial program. Her maturity and experience with children and individuals, say her co-workers, "belie the fact that she is a first year teacher."

Piehler says that, as a first-year special education teacher, she has learned that "we cannot `fix' children over night...My hope for first-year teachers is that they will continue to leave college with the same idealism I did, yet, combine it with realism and remain motivated. This calling requires individuals to be flexible, patient and eager to continuing learning in order to become effective teachers for all students."

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