District 60 / Pueblo City Schools 2017 Award Winners
Christina Benavidez
Christina Benavidez has mastered the art of student motivation and engagement
with an uncanny ability to grow well-rounded human beings through the classroom
experience. Despite not having a physical classroom of her own, she creates an
atmosphere conducive tolearning and
inquiry through hands-on engagements (like Camp Invention and a district energy
competition) that promote critical thinking and problem solving. She seeks to
connect with all 400 of the students in the school, helping them realize their
potential and their individual gifts.Creative, cutting-edge ideas that engage and speak to students. Seeking
contests to showcase the diverse talents of the students. A natural leader, she
is not afraid to take risks and welcomes the challenges with open-mindedness
and a positive attitude
Nominated by Nikki Oreskovich and Monica Valenzuela
David Henderson
David Henderson seeks to stimulate students’ innate curiosity to make them inquirers able to
research information independently so they may have a lifetime love of
learning. His goad that students can synthesize what they have learned band be
able to think critically about complex issues from multiple perspectives and
arrive at reasoned decisions. Using a guiding question for each lesson taught,
Henderson uses political cartoons and storytelling as well as written and oral
evaluations to examine the social, economic and political causes of historic
and current events. He challenges students to step out of their comfort zones
and be risk takers.
Nominated by Christi Kurtz and Ray LeMasters
Kathleen
Lewis
Kathleen Lewis enriches the lives of children with autism whom many
have written off as unteachable. She designs integrated lessons that address
literacy, art, and social skills through multiple learning modalities and
utilizes a variety of calming strategies such as flexible seating, weighted
blankets, relaxation spaces with indirect lighting with lamps rather than
standard overhead lights to help students maintain a level of calm so they can
focus and learn in a safe and supportive environment. Parent support letters
spotlighted the tremendous growth of their children after working with Lewis,
who stopped one student from regularly running away and allowed another to
express himself for the first time in his life.
Nominated by Eric DeCesaro and Emily Johnson
Kathrine Thomson
Known as the “resident
historian,” Kathrine Thomson uses
local history to demonstrate global concepts, which causes her students to
think critically about their own history and surroundings. She has devoted her
life to keeping the history of Colorado alive. Her classroom is built on mutual
respect between educator and student and is able to acclimate students to
college level courses with east due to her straightforward style about
expectations and preparation. She believes that every day is an opportunity to
participate in local, state, national, and world citizenship, and she seeks to
ignite students’ learning and spark their interests in hopes that they will
become lifelong learners and engaged adults.