International Center honors local teachers for classroom efforts

May 11, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida International Center has announced 2012 International K-12 Teacher of the Year Awards to recognize outstanding international endeavors by area teachers and to encourage them to pursue international activities in classrooms and schools.

The 2012 International K-12 Teacher of the Year Award winner is Steven Doherty from Howard Bishop Middle School. In second and third place were Dianne Amendola from Stephen Foster Elementary School and Chu-Chuan Chiu from Lincoln Middle School. Each applicant’s teaching activities promote internationalization and provide opportunities for students to become interested in international issues and to get involved in international classroom activities in the school, community, nation or world.

Doherty, the seventh-grade advanced life science teacher at Bishop, conducts a unit on international peace and human rights every year called “Profiles for Peace,” where students learn about people around the world who have invested their lives to making the world a better place. He also helps to coordinate a “7 billion” project with other teachers exploring the impacts and opportunities of a growing human population confined to finite resources.

Amendola is a fifth-grade teacher at Stephen Foster. She volunteered to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages, known as ESOL, at Sandipani Muni School in Vrndavan, India, during the summer of 2010. As a result she started “Read to Feed, with a Penny per Page,” designed to both donate money to Sandipani Muni School and to encourage students in her classroom to read more.

Chiu is the sixth-to-eighth-grade teacher of Chinese at Lincoln Elementary. Chiu invites all of her students to celebrate Chinese New Year, which helps students gain a better sense of Chinese traditions. Some of her students even perform Chinese songs they learn from class. She also coordinates “Tuesday News” in her classroom to help students connect to the Chinese world and establish a better understanding of current Chinese culture, values, history, society, or issues.

The awards were presented at the UF International Center during a luncheon reception on May 9, honoring the awardees along with their school representatives, family and friends. Each winner and school will receive a monetary award.