1998 Outstanding Educators

From left to right: Eugene Bormann,Colleen Sexton, Diane Steltz, Patty Breece and Marianne Chang.

Ingenuity. That's what PLT's 1998 Outstanding Educators have in common, whether it's when they use the PLT curriculum in creative ways, seek new funding, or build innovative partnerships.

The five winners also exemplify the criteria of the award: exceptional teaching skills, commitment to the PLT curriculum, exemplary use of PLT in classroom projects, and sustained use of PLT. Otherwise, though, they represent the diversity that is one of the strengths of PLT: they work in different parts of the country, in rural and urban communities, and with all ages of learners.

The educators were honored at the International Coordinators Conference, held in May in Clearwater, Florida. PLT prepared and showed a video to the conference attendees that highlighted the winners' accomplishments. Read on to learn how these educators use PLT, combined with their ingenuity, to make a difference in children's lives.

Eugene Bormann
Yankton High School
Yankton, SD
After many years of teaching, Gene Bormann discovered the value of involving his high school science classes in hands-on environmental education through PLT and other programs. Neither he nor his students have been the same since! His students call the outdoors "our other classroom" and, with PLT as a guide, they have observed migrating geese, tested water, and worked with state officials to clean a wetlands study site. Gene is currently making his dream of an Outdoor Learning Center at Yankton High School a reality through private and public partnerships.

Gene also serves as a PLT facilitator. He trains other teachers, organizes workshops, and has taken the lead in coordinating PLT and Project WILD in South Dakota. Proof that the best teacher is often an ongoing student, Gene devotes his summers to summer institutes and a project with the Army Corps of Engineers to rear and release birds along the Missouri River.

Patty Breece
Manitou Middle School
Manitou Springs, CO
Almost every student at Manitou Middle School participates in one of Patty Breece's exploratory courses on environmental science and health. Through these courses and her other PLT activities, Patty has developed outdoor learning experiences that enhance her students awareness and appreciation of the natural world. She also worked to create a nature trail behind the school, which students, their parents, and others in the community built and now maintain. For the past six years, to reach younger children, Patty has directed the Ecotek Day Camp for ages 6 through 10.

Patty has been a PLT facilitator since 1989 and often serves as a mentor to new facilitators. Everyone takes notes when Patty facilitates or presents at a workshop, because she is always introducing new ideas and approaches into her training. Patty has been recognized throughout Colorado for her many achievements and was the state's Outstanding Conservation Educator of the Year in 1997.

Marianne Chang
A.L. Schilling Elementary School
Newark, CA
Marianne has been teaching for only five years, but she has developed a vision for how to introduce her inner-city students to the environment. She has won grants to take them to wildlife refuges and other areas they would not visit otherwise. Through her outstanding teaching, she empowers her students to think about their role in the community and their relationship to nature. For example, her students raised money to purchase a marshland slated for development, and their letters to the owner were successful in convincing him to make the area a natural refuge.

Two years in a row, her class won regional first place in the Environmentality Challenge, a very competitive contest sponsored by the California Environmental Education Interagency Network and the Disney Corporation. During 1995-1996, her class' Creek Project won first place in the entire state. In all her work, Marianne excels at guiding the action and service projects that have made the PLT principles come alive for her students.

Colleen Sexton
School Net-Plus Administrator
Columbus, Ohio
Colleen Sexton has found an innovative way to reach teachers by disseminating PLT through Ohio University's distance learning project. Currently, as Ohio's School Net-Plus Administrator, she is coordinating a statewide PLT computer initiative. She is also developing a syllabus for graduate credit workshops that will serve as a template for future university initiatives. When she recognized a void in PLT volunteers in southeastern Ohio, she took the lead in applying for an NSF grant and recruiting and training 42 facilitators, who now serve as a regional network of lead teachers.

Colleen continually promotes PLT's principles of critical inquiry, problem solving, and constructivism with preservice and inservice teachers, peers, parents, youth, and informal educators such as scout leaders. Ask her how she does it, and she will answer that she just reaches for her PLT activity guides!

Diane Steltz
Division of Forest Resources
Chapel Hill, NC
Diane became a PLT facilitator in 1987, the same year that PLT came to North Carolina, and she hasn't looked back! During that time, she was first employed by the Division of State Parks and is now forest supervisor with the Division of Forest Resources at its Jordan Lake Educational State Forest. A natural-born educator, Diane can tailor a talk to any audience, young or old, and enthrall her listeners through a combination of facts, fascination, and fun. This past year alone, she taught 500 classes, five PLT workshops, and worked with some 200 teachers and 5,000 students. She obtained a grant to create the prototype for a PLT High School Module Tree Trunk and developed workshops and materials for teachers and Forest Resources staff. As a result, a large number of the division's foresters and other resource professionals are now PLT-trained.

Diane is a founding member of the North Carolina Association of Environmental Education Centers and is a Certified Environmental Educator, the highest accreditation in the profession. Through her involvement with PLT, Diane is fulfilling a vital part of the Division of Forest Resources's mission--to teach children about the importance of environmental stewardship.