Five Putnam City Schools teachers were named "Excellent Educators" at the annual banquet of the Putnam City Schools Foundation on April 12.

Carolyn Behrens, the drama teacher at Hefner Middle School, Donna Bergmann, a Title 1 teacher at Central Intermediate School, Beverly Martin, the music teacher at Overholser Elementary School, Denise Tidwell, a 5th grade teacher at Kirkland Elementary School and Randy Utt, a 4th grade teacher at James L. Dennis Elementary School, received the awards.

Each of the five recipients was awarded $1,000, while their schools received $500 to be used to enhance learning opportunities in the recipient’s classroom.

The Excellent Educator Awards, given to teachers who go above the call of duty to educate students in the classroom, are funded by the Independent Insurance Agents Association of Oklahoma.

Below is what attendees at the banquet heard about each of the Excellent Educators:

Her success is exemplified by a state record of averaging more than 45 students participating in the Optimist Oratorical Contests. In these contests, eleven of Mrs. Behrens’ students have taken the top award of a $1,500 college scholarship.

Mrs. Behrens is also equally proud of sending on average more than 120 students each spring to the Putnam City West Novice Drama Contest. The results have been astounding there also, with Hefner bringing home 12 first-place sweepstakes awards.

She is said to combine excessive amounts of energy and a love for her field in such large amounts, that her students cannot help but get caught up and carried along by her contagious excitement.

In the classroom, Mrs. Behrens is kind and patient, but this is certainly not a blow-off class. She has always expected a lot from her students.

The drama room is a great place to be. Here you will find books, scripts, props costumes, files and much more, including a collection of more than 180 hats. The students are invited to use anything and everything as they prepare for events.

Mrs. Behrens is the electives team leader at Hefner, and she is described by her peers as being "disgustingly organized," "dedicated" and "delightful." She plays well with others, and works easily with her fellow teachers to produce high-quality assemblies and performances.

Mrs. Behrens gets her biggest rewards from taking children at a time when their developmental levels are all over the map and guiding those who are shy and introverted to be self-confident, while polishing the talents of others who are more secure in themselves.

She is an excellent educator because she freely gives of herself to her school, her fellow teachers, but most of all to her students. In return, she has earned their love and admiration.

Thank you Carolyn Behrens for going far above and beyond what is required or expected.

As a Title I teacher, Mrs. Bergmann coordinates a daily tutoring program for more than 60 students.

She was the main force behind establishing two wonderful collections of materials to assist students with their reading and math. After setting them up, she now maintains the "book room" which contains more than 1,000 books in leveled sets, and she oversees a large, centralized inventory of math materials that are used for hands-on learning activities. The benefits to the kids have been impressive, and it wouldn’t have happened without Mrs. Bergmann.

With 22 years of teaching experience, and 17 of that in Putnam City, Donna knows that the best teaching philosophy begins with acceptance. She searches for a child’s strengths, and then builds on them as she challenges him to meet high expectations as they move forward together.

Working with small groups, gives Donna the opportunity to meet specific learning needs for her students.

The school has seen a quiet transformation as Mrs. Bergmann has established a "home to school" connection that puts leveled books and other materials into the hands of parents to use with their children.

Always looking for a way to make things better, Mrs. Bergmann conducts a math club for students; makes time on a regular basis to mentor students who need additional guidance; has received training and serves as the back up computer lab manager; serves as the key organizer for standardized testing; and plays a major role in organizing the 5th-grade’s time at Camp Classen.

A fellow teacher writing in support of Mrs. Bergmann’s application for this award states: "Her friendly smile is reflective of the positive attitude she brings into our building each day, and we are fortunate to have her here as a teacher and mentor, but it is the students in her classroom who are truly the fortunate ones."

Thank you Donna Bergmann for making great things happen at Central Intermediate.

Honored as an OPOE State Educator Merit Award winner in 2003, Dr. Martin’s talents, make for a zestful classroom.

Recently, she saw the need for adding and improving the quality of instruments in our elementary schools, and she encouraged the passage of a bond issue to provide funding for their purchase. Software, risers, and instruments for Pre-K and kindergarten rooms across the district have also come about through Dr. Martin’s leadership.

She has developed an extensive array of learning centers that cover the PASS objectives while making learning fun. It’s common to find her students making real music with homemade instruments that once were just PVC pipe, rubber gloves and cardboard tubes. It’s great fun, and real learning is taking place.

For those of you who understand such things, I know you will be interested to learn that she teaches duple and triple meter as the kids skate about the room on paper plates while saying, "scoot, scoot," or "scoot, scoot, scoot."

Here’s an example how she integrates music into the regular curriculum: Let the students’ classroom spelling words serve as the beginning point for them to write and perform simple compositions using rhythms of quarter, two-eighths, four-sixteenths, and triplet.

Innovation combined with fun is Dr. Martin’s foundation for teaching music in a child-centered way. She genuinely loves what she does and her kids, and it comes shining through.

Her efforts beyond her teaching field to make Overholser a better school extends to leading the paper drive, maintaining the school garden, and overseeing collecting box tops to obtain free equipment for the school.

She has the respect and admiration of her students, their parents, and her peers.

She has an enormous regard for the three "Ls": life, learning and laughter, and she works hard every day to give the lessons of each to her students. Beverly Martin, Excellent Educator.

Mrs. Tidwell is noted for her wonderful sense of humor and high energy level. Students in her classes laugh and smile a lot.

Her creative lesson plans are well known, and she enjoys involving the community and parents in helping her provide up-to-date information to catch and keep her students’ full attention.

For example, this Disney Teacher of the Year nominee and Olympic torch escort runner implemented the comprehensive "Liberty Kids" program into her classroom. The program calls for students to gather information about the Revolutionary War from a wide variety of sources and then make use of the computer lab to write articles as if they were a reporter for the Pennsylvania Gazette and had witnessed the historical events they researched. This process of combining research skills, social studies, reading and writing produces a remarkable product while enhancing student proficiency and interest.

Rewriting history as though it occurred in modern times, and asking students to write stories by successively adding paragraphs are two among many successful teaching strategies Mrs. Tidwell employs to engage all of her students.

Believing students to be perceptive and curious, but who all to often cite television as a authoritative source, has led Mrs. Tidwell to teach in a way that fosters sustained student interest. She gives direction, counsel and substance and then allows the students to think independently as they acquire and apply knowledge to gain understanding.

And, sometimes life-long classroom memories get created. For example, in Mrs. Tidwell’s words: "When studying Egyptian history, we mummified chickens donated by a grocery store. So that students could understand how the process worked, each child had a chicken, placed it in a plastic bag and buried it in fresh salt twice a week for a month. It was an interesting project, the kids loved it, and the supplies were donated, but it took more than 2,000 pounds of salt to complete the process."

Believing her job does not end at the classroom door, Mrs. Tidwell serves on many school improvement committees, participates in PTA, takes primary responsibility for many school-wide programs and assemblies, helps in the administration office as needed, assists in ordering resource materials, and is in charge of EDIT training.

All of this, and unfortunately what you’ll probably remember most about Mrs. Tidwell is all those mummified chickens.

Thank you, Denise Tidwell for being an innovative and excellent educator.

Her classroom environment is described as positive and encouraging high expectations.

A recent technology grant has helped Mrs. Utt teach differently as she incorporates technology to help her reach her goals and objectives. Paper and pencil have given way in many cases to digital cameras, Kid Pix, PowerPoint, video editing, wireless laptops, and the Internet. The students are learning the same material, but they are gaining technology skills as they do so.

Mrs. Utt maintains a popular web site for her classroom. There are numerous links that correspond with units of study, and the site gives information about what is happening in her classroom as well as at the school. Parents have frequently said how much they enjoy having this information available online.

Mrs. Utt sees her classroom as being a community of learners, and she particularly enjoys sharing with them the exciting materials she has gained during the last five years as a participant in National Science Foundation courses.

The Daily Oklahoman has come to her classroom for the past four years to make a special report on the "Oklahoma Living History Museum" the class does as a part of their study of Oklahoma.

Mrs. Utt’s students also use digital cameras to create PowerPoint pages that are printed as a geometry book showing captured shapes, angles and lines found in the school. This is just one of a variety of student produced PowerPoint shows made during the year.

Depending on which day you come to Mrs. Utt’s class, you might see her students making a 1 ½ foot tall paper doll of a famous black American with research information on the back, or participating in a hands on study of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, or creating biography cubes, or assembling an autobiographical "squash book" that will be given by the students to their parents as a Christmas gift.

Mrs. Utt’s expectations for her students are high, and they must take creative risks to meet them, but the classroom atmosphere is calm and inviting. This is a safe place to take risks, and the trust and rapport Mrs. Utt has with her students allows her to meet their academic, emotional and social needs.

A parent wrote in support of Mrs. Utt’s nomination: "As parents, we appreciate the fact that Mrs. Utt gets to know her students, earns their respect, and tailors the classroom experience to their individual learning styles."

Thank you, Randy Utt, excellent educator, for setting high expectations for your students, and then making sure they meet them.