Four Kohl Fellows Selected Wisconsin Teachers Of The Year
Wisconsin’s elementary, middle/junior high, high school, and special
services Teachers of the Year are:
- Debbra Sue Coats, a second-grade teacher at Clay Lamberton Elementary
School in the Berlin Area School District;
- Gerald Hoefs, a fourth- through eighth-grade teacher at Neosho Elementary
School in the Neosho J3 School District;
- Thomas Sheffel, a biology teacher at Somerset High School; and
- Jean Hilger, a teacher of learning-disabled and gifted-and-talented
students at Lincoln High School in the Wisconsin Rapids School District.
The four were among 86 Kohl Teacher Fellowship recipients honored last
spring and were chosen for the Teacher of the Year honor for their instructional
leadership and ability to inspire and
motivate students. Hoefs will represent Wisconsin in the National Teacher
of the Year program.
"If we hope to realize our New Wisconsin Promise to put quality
teachers in every classroom, we must recognize those who are inspirational
to both their students and to those aspiring to enter the profession,"
State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster said. "We need these individuals
mentoring and sharing their excitement and expertise with new educators."
Elementary School Teacher of the Year Debbra Sue Coats
"I consider each child entrusted to my care a special gift,"
wrote Debbra Sue Coats in her Kohl Teacher Fellowship application materials.
"It is my job to carefully unwrap each gift to discover what is inside.
Every child has unique talents, interests, learning styles, and needs."
Coats uses visual, auditory, and hands-on learning activities and employs
ongoing assessments to determine what her students know and need to learn.
“I believe the needs of my students should drive my curriculum; therefore,
I observe and listen to my students daily.” She shares her own interests
and questions with her students “so they know that teachers keep
right on learning all their lives.” Coats has employed service-learning
opportunities to raise the money for a shade tree for the new playground
and to weed the school courtyard.
Among Coats’ innovative projects is a pen pal exchange with a class
in Nuriootpa, South Australia, incorporated into lessons in reading, writing,
mathematics, and other subjects. The Adventures
of Flat Stanley, a book character flattened in a mishap and mailed to
relatives around the world, stimulates learning about other countries
and cultures. Flat Stanley has visited Singapore, England,
Malta, Canada, Puerto Rico, and many of the United States, returning “home”
with letters and postcards describing his travels. Her class’s award-winning
Web site, myschoolonline.com/wi/mrs_coats,
showcases student writing, artwork, and other special projects.
One parent of twin students described Coats’ classroom as “a
visual and intellectual feast” that inspired his children to learn.
“They seemed to inherit her tireless energy, her love of learning,
her zest for life. …Teachers this memorable, this dedicated, this
gifted are rare. We should treasure them. Our children do.”
Coats has been a second-grade teacher at Clay Lamberton Elementary School
for 16 years and taught third-grade there for one year. She earned a bachelor
of science degree in art education in 1979 from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
and received her K-6 certification in 1985. She recently completed a graduate
degree as part of a Learning Community at UW-Stevens Point and is working
to create a portfolio to attain Master Teacher status.
Middle/Junior High School Teacher of the Year Gerald Hoefs
“My personal educational philosophy is based on…five tenets:
a sincere affection for children, a love of learning, challenging lessons,
application to real life, and acting as a role model for my students,”
Gerald Hoefs wrote in his Kohl Teacher Fellowship application. It is a
philosophy that carries over into his work with the Ashippun Volunteer
Fire Department, the Hartford Area Band Parents, and his church.
Hoefs applies as many lessons as he can to “real life” and is
an enthusiastic participant in students’ learning. A study of the
media requires each student to research and write an article, take
digital photographs, and design and lay out a newspaper page. A mass media
unit requires students to write their own scripts and set up the shots
for a video news story.
Among Hoefs’ most recent innovative teaching projects was the creation
of a Micro-Society; with his school colleagues, he established a bank,
post office, school store, university, and snack shop. Paid in school
currency for their work in these “enterprises,” students elected
an executive committee to conduct monthly meetings, plan activities, and
issue checks. Students, who may set up their own businesses, established
a sign shop, a loan company, a carnival, and a basketball league. “It
is a great program for
students to learn about handling money, filling out job applications,
parliamentary procedure, hiring procedures, investing, setting goals,
and the complexity of starting a business,” wrote Hoefs.
“His ambition to have his students view the world around them included
visits to his home on clear nights to view the stars and planets through
his telescopes,” recalled a fellow teacher. “Moms, dads, brothers,
sisters, and babies in strollers appeared at his front door. His yard
became a classroom for an entire community on those nights. Jerry’s
classroom has never been big enough for his projects.”
Hoefs has been a teacher in Neosho for 26 years; prior to that, he taught
in Ohio for two years and was a teacher’s aide at Richfield Elementary
School in the Richfield J1 School District. He earned a
bachelor’s degree at Concordia Teachers College in 1973 and a master’s
degree from National Louis University in 1985. He received the Firefighter
of Merit Award in 1998 from the Ashippun Fire Department. Last October,
representing the fire department, elementary school, and Hartford Memorial
Hospital, Hoefs delivered checks totaling $2,700 to the Widows and Orphans
Fund of the Fire Department of New York.
High School Teacher of the Year Thomas Sheffel
“I always measure the effectiveness of a lesson by how it will give
my students an opportunity to be curious,” wrote Thomas Sheffel in
his Kohl Teacher Fellowship application. “Challenging the mind of
a young adult is a sure way to inspire a love of learning. I am excited
to see students rise to the challenge of a thought-provoking concept and
rigorously discuss the ideas, facts, and possibilities.”
Sheffel seeks relevancy in his curriculum and for his students.
Current events are a “priority,” creating “many opportunities
to make classroom information relevant and personal.” He uses local
laboratory materials and hands-on projects, and he wraps up unit studies
by challenging students “to make a real-life decision.” Among
other topics of study last year were anthrax (bacteria unit), chemicals
in school lunch (biochemistry), and household cleaning products. In conjunction
with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Sheffel and
his students conducted a prairie restoration project. His high-schoolers
worked with the DNR to map out the boundaries and organized and assisted
fifth-graders in planting trees. The trees and wildflowers were purchased
using funds raised by the students. “The prairie has become a focal
point of the community,” notes Sheffel, who added a science pond
to create an outdoor classroom for the school district and the community.
He also created a mentoring program, with 10th-grade biology students
assisting 4th-graders in a unit on plants.
“I never truly enjoyed science until I had Mr. Sheffel as a teacher,”
wrote a former student. “In every class we were hands-on, either
working on projects, looking at slides of microorganisms in pond
water we collected, or surveying the school grounds.” Parents of
another student wrote, “Just this past week, there was an article
in the local paper about his current lake-monitoring project; characteristically,
the photos were of the students, not of Tom.”
In 1979, Sheffel completed a bachelor of science degree in forestry at
the University of Minnesota; he spent a dozen years employed outside of
teaching before earning a teaching certificate at UW-Superior in 1993.
He has been a T-Ball, Little League, and soccer coach. He aspires to start
an FFA Chapter at
Somerset High School to complement a strong community 4-H program.
Special Services Teacher of the Year Jean Hilger
“I try to instill in students responsibility for their learning,”
wrote Jean Hilger in her Kohl Teacher Fellowship application. “Each
student may travel a different route and get there at a different
time, but every student is capable of traveling beyond where they are.”
She applies her philosophy equally with learning disabled and gifted-and-talented
students, adding “learning is a uniquely individual lifelong process
for students and teachers.”
Hilger uses games, graphic organizers, color, music, movement, and sketching
to make learning both challenging and fun. She motivates students by encouraging
them to step out of their comfort zone, take risks, and move to the next
level of challenge. She encourages students with low reading abilities
to tackle famous poems, assigning a verse to each student, advancing to
choral reading, and culminating in individual reading.
A self-described “mover and shaker” when it comes to her students’
educational needs, Hilger has developed an Individualized English class
for students with first- to third-grade reading levels. She planned and
instituted a high school resource center for special education students.
Her Silhouette Activity helps teachers look at the whole student; shows
how detrimental labels can be; and stresses the importance of looking
at each child’s strengths, talents, and interests. She also offers
learning-disabled
students an opportunity to educate others about their disabilities. Students
facilitate workshops for parents and teachers, including question-and-answer
sessions that lead to honest discussions about their feelings, frustrations,
and needs.
“Jean Hilger is persistently dedicated,” wrote a former administrator.
“When I think of the extent to which she sought to meet with parents,
facilitated agency contacts, and worked out special programs for students
- this quality in her goes above and beyond the call of duty. …I
know that I am making Jean sound as if she walks on water…several
times a day. She comes close.”
Hilger earned her bachelor of science degree at UW-Oshkosh in 1973 and
her master’s degree from UW-Stevens Point 10 years later. She has
taught all of her 29 years in the Wisconsin Rapids School District. She
has for the past 22 years been an advocate and volunteer for people with
epilepsy, receiving the Hall of Fame Award in 1994 from the Epilepsy Foundation
of Central and Northeastern Wisconsin for her “diversity of service
and longevity of commitment.”
Posted September 13, 2002