Recipient: Karen Sitnik

Number of years teaching: 10

School: Associated Hebrew School—Posluns Branch

Grades:  2 and 3

Inspiration/Motivation for being a Teacher of Excellence:

Karen is motivated to get to know her audience, that being her students.  She gets to know each child’s level and strives to insure that each student is successful.  She teaches material in ways that allow the children to see it, hear it, act it and creatively express it to make sure that learning takes place.  Karen is motivated by her students’ success.  She loves seeing them grow, learn and begin doing things independently.  She believes in being connected to the students’ parents so that as a partnership they can encourage success in the children’s lives. 

Karen obviously influenced the parent who wrote her letter of nomination.  She wrote: 

Karen is fair, kind and honest with realistic expectations for her students.  As she is a role model who practices Derech Eretz, she receives the utmost respect from her students.  She seems to acquire an intuitive understanding of the potential of each particular student and then teaches to their learning needs and strengths.  She encourages and provides a comfortable learning environment for every student.  Karen serves as a positive, creative and pleasant influence in a child’s life.