Head Of The Class

3 Utah Valley teachers earn high marks for making education their passion

In Utah Valley, teachers have kicked off the school year with an above-average dedication to education. While working in the most complex profession, teachers must have a unique school of thought to stand out from the crowd of thousands of Utah educators. Teaching requires a broad knowledge of subject matter, the ability to organize and discipline, a caring and compassionate attitude, and a deep desire to make a difference in others’ lives. Only a handful of lucky classrooms are headed by teachers who ace all of these subjects.

Here are three of the area’s best-loved teachers, whose passion for the profession earns them straight As.

A LESSON in culture
Zulma Castaneda’s growing-up years were anything but typical. Raised in Peru, she wasn’t surprised by regular bombs, blackouts and massacres.

“That’s the scary part — when you just get numb to the situation,” she says. “We came to the United States looking for the peace we couldn’t find in our country.”

As a 17-year-old Peruvian in exile, Zulma began the process of learning a new language and adapting to a new country — a discovery exercise, she says. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from BYU, then went on to Yale for a master’s degree in Spanish literature.

While a student, Zulma found herself drawn to teaching. After teaching Spanish for five years at UC Davis and joining the part-time faculty at BYU, she is now entering her fourth year as a Spanish teacher at Freedom Academy, a charter school in Provo.

“This is something that fascinates me about what I do,” she says. “I don’t care if I teach in a college or another school — teaching is one of those things that fulfills you in any atmosphere. It’s not a fact of passing knowledge or information, it’s the opportunity I have to shape lives — to really change the world.”

Already, Zulma has shaped dozens of lives that have come through her classroom. For 2008, she was named by the Utah State Office of Education as the Charter School Teacher of the Year.

“It’s one of those things that happens and you don’t believe it,” she says. “And my intention is not to take away from the merit of the award, but really the best reward for teaching is seeing my students speaking in Spanish, or finding a little letter on my desk that says class today was awesome, or when I have students who want to come eat lunch with me or just talk.”

One of Zulma’s greatest measures of success is the interest her students gain in cultures other than their own. Last year, Zulma had a small class that felt out of place in the school and struggled with rules. Since Zulma teaches Spanish in the cultural context, she challenged them to learn a Spanish dance to perform at the school’s end-of-the-year program.

“There were students who were grumpy about it the entire year,” she says. “But then to see 12-year-olds dancing the merengue with a smile at the program — that made everything worth it. It was such a simple but neat experience. They were influenced.”

Down to a science
Linda Walter’s success as a science teacher at Payson High School might be due to her unique attitude toward the students.

“Teenagers are the best people in the wholeworld,” she says. “I’m the adult, but I’m not any smarter than they are — I just have more experience than they do. It’s a good thing to let them know they have the same capabilities. We’re no different.”

Linda knows that instructing teenagers requires flexibility — and fun.

“My lesson plans are becoming less rigid,” she says. “What the students need has to come first. I still cover the core curriculum, but there are other ways to approach it. Traditionally, science has the aura of a hard, miserable class, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

When one group of students said they wanted to go camping, Linda told them to bring their camping gear to class. They set up their tent in the middle of the classroom, lit a Bunsen burner “campfire,” and talked about energy.

“I think you have to go with whatever kids are doing at the moment,” Linda says. “You can’t be afraid to let go of your plan. It’s important that we be in tune enough that kids can see their plan is more important. We never know what’s happening in their lives unless we open up to them.”

And if anyone is in tune with what a teenager needs in the classroom, it’s Linda.

“I do a lot of show and tell,” she says. “I like pictures, I like toys. We’ve gotten laptops in our classroom and we’re hooking up the lab equipment with them. I write songs and sing them to learn vocabulary and relationships. I sing off key and they laugh.”

And her quirky teaching style pays off — Linda was named the Nebo School District Teacher of the Year for 2008, and won the award of second runner up for the entire state.

“I was very flattered,” she says. “I thought it was really neat that the nontraditional person could do this — that it’s alright to be a little bit on the strange side, a little bit on the weird side. It was very reaffirming that what I’m doing is important. It’s different hearing it from people other than the children. It’s neat that people recognize the value of a teacher.”

Making the grade
Sandi Barnes’ students are some of the smallest kids in the school, but her responsibility is enormous. As a first-grade teacher at Lakeview Elementary in Provo, she’s accountable for building the reading, writing and social skills that will carry her students through the rest of their lives.

“Sometimes you stand back and say, ‘Oh my goodness. I’m really responsible for these kids,’” Sandi says. “And knowing some of their backgrounds, I’m really taking on a big role to have them seven hours a day.”

After 13 years of teaching first grade, Sandi has learned what works best in the classroom.

“My favorite way to teach is to present an idea and say, ‘What do you think? How can we use that in this game or this story?’” she says. “That turns out to be the best way of learning, because everybody’s involved. The lights go on and they start to relate it to life experiences.”

Sandi’s attentiveness to her students earned her the title of 2008 Provo School District Teacher of the Year from the Utah State Office of Education.

“There are so many other teachers I admire, and there are a million other teachers who deserve this,” Sandi says. “But if they recognize me because they know I love what I do, then it’s OK.”

That love for her profession, paired with the gratitude of the children, is what helps Sandi keep the spirit of teaching.

“I’ve had kids come to me in the morning and throw their arms around me and say, ‘I love you, teacher,’” she says. “For them to say that they must be happy here. That says a lot to me.”

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