Exceptionally good teachers

Two Pinellas teachers take top awards from a state group that helps exceptional students.

Two Pinellas special education teachers - one in the prime of her career and another who is just starting out - have won statewide recognition from an organization dedicated to helping exceptional students.

The Florida Federation of the Council for Exceptional Children named Carol Dinsdale, a teacher of students with emotional handicaps at Mount Vernon Elementary School, the 2003 Marjorie Crick Teacher of the Year.

The federation named Janessa Duttry, who teaches hearing impaired prekindergarten children at Cross Bayou Elementary School, the Jack Lamb Rookie Teacher of the Year.

It is unusual for two teachers from the same school district to win both awards, said federation president Florence Taber Brown.

"It certainly doesn't happen very often," she said. "We were really thrilled with the people who won this year."

Special education teachers from throughout the state were eligible to receive nominations for the awards. The winners were announced at the federation's annual conference in Orlando on Oct. 18.

The Pinellas County chapter of the Council for Exceptional Children named Dinsdale, who is 50, the district's exceptional student education teacher of the year in May. The honor came four months after she was named one of 16 finalists for Pinellas County Outstanding Educator of the Year.

When CEC board members asked her to describe a recent lesson, she told them about the day she brought two of her pets - a bearded dragon and a leopard gecko - to school. After observing the animals' behavior, the children compared their likenesses and differences and then wrote essays about their findings.

"I told them you could do a really creative lesson, but if the kids aren't interested in it, forget it. It isn't going to fly," she said.

Dinsdale said she had no problem describing to the board members how she knows when she has been successful. Her litmus test is when her students make good choices not only in the classroom, but when they're out of her sight.

She also shared with them her greatest hope: that when she runs into her students five or 10 years from now, they will tell her that she taught them more than how to read and write. She wants to hear them say they are good husbands, good wives and good citizens.

The federation presented Dinsdale with a plaque and a check for $200. She already has bought classroom materials with part of the money and used the rest to buy a gift certificate for her teacher assistant, Cheryl Harris.

"She's the second half of the team," Dinsdale said. "I might get these great ideas, but she's that extra set of hands that helps me pull them off."

Duttry, the federation's Jack Lamb Rookie Teacher of the Year, has been a teacher at Cross Bayou Elementary for three years. A 1996 graduate of Dunedin High School, she became interested in working with hearing impaired children by watching her parents' minister to the deaf community at their church.

Cross Bayou principal Marcia Stone described Duttry, who is 25, as a principal's dream.

"She's incredibly creative and just so hands-on with everything she does," Stone said. "She stays after school to teach the parents sign language on her own time. She just goes the extra mile."

Stone recalled a recent incident in which Duttry accompanied one of her hearing-impaired students to the hospital. The teacher helped the girl prepare for heart surgery and used sign language to explain what was going to happen. She stayed with the family and visited the child after the surgery to make sure she wouldn't be afraid, Stone said.

Duttry refused to take all the credit for the Rookie of the Year award.

"I've learned so much from the teachers here at Cross Bayou," she said. "It's a direct reflection of their leadership."

The foundation gave her a membership in the Council for Exceptional Children and a plaque.

She and Dinsdale both plan to begin the rigorous process of preparing for National Board certification shortly.

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