CARPENTERSVILLE- On March 19, 2008 The District 300 Foundation had the pleasure to announce the Inaugural recipient for the Distinguished Educator of the Year award.  This year the award goes to Nancy Hatcher of Liberty Elementary School, a teacher for nineteen years in the District 300, who currently teaches literacy, kindergarten 1^st and 2^nd grades.  This award will annually honor a District 300 classroom educator who best meets the award criteria and embodies the spirit of the District 300 Foundation in their work, which is to seek to enhance and extend learning opportunities for all District 300 students.

The Foundation awarded an Innovation grant for Buddy Day Program at Liberty Elementary to Mrs. Hatcher.  The Buddy Day program matches older (4^th or 5^th graders) with 1^st grade students using a peer-mentoring framework.  Mentor buddies are trained to teach their younger buddy language arts skills using activities ranging from interactive writing, to reading to working on decoding skills.

Nancy has been able to incorporate music and drama for instructional and professional development purposes and integrates technology in every way imaginable.  She implemented The Sock Writing Project which had students write to friends and family members requesting socks for the needy.  Students then sang songs to the donors and logged where socks were received on a map.  This taught the students not only to give back to people in need, but also essential reading and writing skills.

Nancy inspires teachers at Liberty as she is always willing to share her vast knowledge with staff conducting top-notch professional development training.  From book discussions on new teaching techniques to modeling in classrooms and videotaping the great teaching taking place in our school to share with others, Nancy highlights the best of the best.  As a District 300 mentor teacher Nancy exemplifies what it means to be supportive to new staff. 

Nancy continually seeks ways to obtain funding to improve reading and writing and address the needs of all learners.  Nancy researches new and innovative teaching techniques and seeks out strategies to differentiate instruction.  She works one-on-one with students to improve learning and collaboratively plans with her peers and uses local and state testing data to improve instruction.

Mrs. Hatcher’s principal, Ms. Kristin Corriveau had this to say about Mrs. Hatcher:

“Nancy’s eternal love of learning is evident by her continued dedication to seeking out and researching current and up-and-coming trends in reading and writing.  She is passionate about not only improving herself as a teacher, but each and every teacher in our building.  Liberty Elementary School has worked alongside Lincoln Prairie Elementary to provide the highest quality professional development—and Nancy’s contributions have been enormous.  Nancy makes personal connections with each and every staff member and in return garners the utmost respect from our staff and staff throughout the district.  Nancy sets high standards for herself and others.”

The nominees for this year's award were a very impressive group of District 300 educators, making the Selection Committee's work very difficult. The quality and depth of Nancy's efforts to enhance learning opportunities for District 300 students particularly impressed the committee along with the fact that she has sustained these efforts over a significant period of time. The Selection Committee consisted of retired District 300 educators who after having had distinguished careers in public education themselves, could fully appreciated Nancy's contributions.

The District 300 Foundation is proud and honored to be able to announce Nancy Hatcher as the District 300 Distinguished Educator of the Year.  Mrs. Hatcher has been an inspiration to everyone she has touched.  She will be honored at the Annual Award Ceremony Spring Gala on Friday, April 25^th at 6:00pm at the Raue Center for the Arts.  Tickets are available at www.rauecenter.org or for more information visit www.d300foundation.org .