Teacher of the year pushes cooperation

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kathy Mellor already has a lesson plan for the next school year: Show her peers why teaching is not a solo mission.

“Teachers have to know that they’re not alone, that if they work with their students, their colleagues, their administrators, their school boards, their teaching associations, they can get a lot more done,” said Mrs. Mellor, a Rhode Island teacher who today was named National Teacher of the Year for 2004.

“What I’ve learned as a teacher has come from being a parent and an aunt and a friend in the neighborhood,” Mrs. Mellor said. “A lot of parents have a lot more to deal with than we realize and we have to be partners in providing an education to their children.”

President Bush planned a White House ceremony tomorrow to honor Mrs. Mellor, who has taught limited-English students for 24 years, and the top teachers from other states.

A teacher at Davisville Middle School in North Kingstown, R.I., Mrs. Mellor reshaped the English-as-a-second-language program in her district, allowing students to be integrated with others while they got help. She also formed a parents group for speakers of other languages.

Mrs. Mellor urges teachers to reach beyond the classroom and understand their students’ lives. She is known for setting high but realistic standards and for earning so much respect that students want her at their first Communions and backyard dances.

“You model a lot for children in how hard you work, your conscientiousness, your presence — in the way you treat them and their parents,” Mrs. Mellor, 55, said. “It’s not just what’s in the curriculum. It’s about being fair and resolving problems. A big part of teaching is remembering what it was like to be a kid.”

As she meets with teachers nationwide, Mrs. Mellor is sure to hear plenty about the No Child Left Behind Act, Mr. Bush’s education centerpiece.