Teacher Up for 'Outstanding Educator' Award

ESOL teacher Stephanie Whitaker refuses to sit at a desk. 

She doesn’t even have one in her classroom, No. 229.

Whitaker opts instead to sit front and center underneath the whiteboard on a colorful rug depicting the United States, with 20 fifth-graders of varying ethnicities and backgrounds around her.

Her station looks more like a treasure chest. It’s a mix of brown boxes and plastic bags full of balls, boards, tubing, markers, toys and anything that may double as a hands-on teaching instrument.

"It’s easy to get comfortable," Whitaker said in December. "My job isn’t to be comfortable. It’s to do what’s best for them."

In her six years at the school, she has done anything but get comfortable. It's her engaging style and dedication to her students that helped get her nominated a countywide teaching award. 

While pregnant with her son, who's now 1 year old, she “looped” with her students when they were still fourth-graders. This seldom-practiced, work-intensive approach involves teaching to students a grade below so the teacher can advance together with her students the following year. Proponents say the practice has a stabilizing effect for students and produces invaluable learning gains. 

From 8,000 teachers, Pinellas County Schools selected Whitaker, 29,  for its Outstanding Educator of the Year award. The winning teacher will be announced tonight (Feb. 27) at the Evening of Excellence banquet at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. The annual ceremony honors the county's best educators and business partners in its schools.

Dunedin Patch caught up with Whitaker shortly in December. Here's a glimpse into what makes her outstanding:

Hometown: Buffalo, NY

Education: State University of New York at Oswego for her bachelor's degree, and University of South Florida for her master's degree

Her favorite part of teaching: “We’re really important to these kids. You just don’t even realize,” she said. During her first year, when she was treading water trying to keep up, she said, she was at her desk when one of her students approached to give her a drawing. She said she set it aside because she was busy looking for something. She said couldn't even remember what it was. The child was so sad when she sat back down. "She thought I didn’t like the drawing," Whitaker said. “I was really important to her in that moment. You have to appreciate that."

Outlook on dealing with hardship: Whitaker said she recognizes that "things in education aren’t always roses and butterflies," so when she started out, she promised herself one thing: She wouldn’t let forces out of her control dictate her attitude. "Otherwise, you can't stay in this profession. You wouldn’t be effective," she said.

Most memorable teaching moment: Recently, Whitaker said, some of her students made a poor choice and took items that did not belong to them. She said because of their history together, she knew her students well enough to have a meaningful conversation about that decision — turning what could have been disciplinary action into a life-learning moment. 

What keeps her going: "Knowing that I have made a difference in 25 lives every day," she said. "For some kids, this is the only safe place they have to go." She loves seeing that they are loving school and they want to learn. 

[Updated Monday, Feb. 12, 2012, 11:04 p.m.]