This year's winners, from left, are Diana Barnhart, Denis Cruz, Shelbi J. Wilson, Kenneth Dyar and Kelly Jean Hanock.

Five California teachers are sharing this year's California Teacher of the Year award for 2006:

 

Diana Barnhart, a member of the San Luis Coastal Teachers Association, teaches science at Los Osos Middle School in the San Luis Coastal Unified School District.

 

Kenneth Dyar, a member of the Delano Union Elementary School Teachers Association, teaches physical education at Cecil Avenue Middle School in the Delano Union Elementary School District.

 

Shelbi J. Wilson, a member of the Riverside City Teachers Association, teaches English and health, coaches volleyball and the yearbook, and works in the Teen Mom program at Abraham Lincoln High School in the Riverside Unified School District.

 

Kelly Jean Hanock, a member of United Teachers Los Angeles, teaches English language arts at James Monroe High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

 

Denis Cruz, a member of the Whittier Elementary Teachers Association, is a literacy coach at Katherine Edwards Middle School in the Whittier City School District.

 

Cruz will represent California in the National Teacher of the Year competition. [See related story.]

 

This year's winners symbolize the profession's contributions to quality education and focus public attention on the noteworthy accomplishments of teachers, according to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.

 

Diana Barnhart's students at Los Osos Middle School take pride in "geeky wonder." Students, teachers, even maintenance employees regularly stop in to see what's happening (or what smells so bad).

 

Barnhart has a reputation for keeping her students in the palm of her hand from the minute they walk into her room to the minute they are forced to leave.

 

Her science classroom is a place where students are safe to be inquisitive children. A typical day begins with something on the lab table for students to explore: ice cubes that sink in water, a fresh cow brain, optical illusions or sparkling crystals.

 

In their travels, Barnhart and her family collect artifacts to make science relevant, including anything from glacial or volcanic rocks to lumps of coal and raw oil samples. "This summer I assisted in multiple tonsillectomies in a remote clinic in Mexico," says Barnhart. "I decided the infected tonsils were too gross for even me to bring to class, but I have pictures and great stories to share."

 

Barnhart discovered science when her fifth-grade teacher brought in a big tarantula and sent her out to gather grasshoppers to feed it. After that, she signed up for every science class offered. Now she has her students form "Creature Crews" to go into elementary school classrooms as experts on critters, bearing sometimes slimy specimens for the youngsters to touch.

 

"The satisfaction of watching a flood of understanding wash across a fresh young face is like no other," says Barnhart. "Where else but in teaching is there the opportunity to just be there for so many children, believing in them" and providing "a safe refuge from the storms of adolescence?"

 

When Ken Dyar was six years old, he suffered a head injury in a fall. During his recuperation from six surgeries and subsequent physical therapy, he experienced a "lightning bolt" moment. "All the great teachers who had influenced me came rushing back in my memory," says Dyar. That's when he decided he wanted to share his love of activity, touch young lives and become a physical educator.

 

The Bakersfield newspaper describes Dyar's class at Cecil Avenue Middle School as "a kooky combination of jazzercise, boot camp, and kick-boxing." Amidst his treasure chest of standards-based activities are team-building games to teach students to become better members of society.

 

Recently, eighth-graders helped the sixth- and seventh-graders learn a new aerobics routine. Dyar has also implemented "Family Fitness Calendars," which include homework for families to do together. A typical activity is to "jump-rope the alphabet three times." Sometimes, students bring their families to campus to do aerobics after Dyar teaches them a routine.

 

Last year, Dyar's department partnered with community organizations to offer health-related information and services free of charge at a parent university.

 

Believing that children in poor health cannot function at their academic best, Dyar supports placing physical education specialists in every elementary school. He also believes that universities miss something when they emphasize content knowledge to the near exclusion of other aspects of teaching, such as discipline, professionalism, making connections with families, and incorporating passion in teaching.

 

"If you have a passion for sharing with young people, and if you have a passion for doing everything in your power to make their lives better (including things you never thought a teacher would be responsible for), then teaching is for you."

 

As the daughter of a special education teacher, Shelbi Wilson quickly learned that failure was not an option.

 

She got interested in following in her mother's footsteps while working in a group home during college and "seizing opportunities to shape diamonds from what society had cast off as rocks." She learned that, regardless of the circumstances, students can do anything if teachers are willing to go the extra mile for them.

 

In her classes at Abraham Lincoln High School in Riverside, students develop a love of reading and become proficient writers despite the fact that they bring many issues to school with them. Many have documented histories of poor attendance, defiance, and physical and verbal aggression. Yet Wilson maintains, "We are a family of ever-growing individuals."

 

Wilson maintains that compassion does not mean compromise. "As with a doctor," she says, "failure can be a matter of life and death." With so many students experiencing only confusion and failure, Wilson says they need to be reminded what success feels like.

 

"She taught me that continuation high school isn't an ending," says one of Wilson's students. "It's more than just a second chance. It's a beginning."

 

As Teen Mom teacher, Wilson doubles as a Lamaze coach, mediator, advisor, legal counselor, problem solver and surrogate mother. She also created "X-Men," a male involvement program to connect young men with the same community resources as the mothers.

 

When given a choice, Kelly Hanock's English language arts students at James Monroe High School in Los Angeles prefer to learn in Socratic seminars. They like participating in a thoughtful exchange of ideas while attending to the changing dynamics of the group, which often includes guest speakers.

 

"With only nine native English speakers and skill levels ranging from gifted to basic, dominant speakers learn patience and an appreciation for silence; less confident speakers learn that their voices matter."

 

As one student put it, "We all have to listen. It's good to realize that other people can also be right."

 

Hanock's students cleaned up Santa Monica Beach in conjunction with researching ocean pollution. They held a hip-hop concert to keep kids off the street. They initiated a speakers' forum. Through a partnership with L.A. Theater Works, students participate in a photography workshop. The smaller learning community area on campus, previously filled with dumpsters and containers, is now home to monthly student-led conferences and block parties.

 

Rather than dictating class rules, Hanock, a member of United Teachers Los Angeles, establishes classroom norms. Students negotiate ideas that facilitate better learning environments. Students also collaborate on service-learning projects in which they determine the problem, conduct appropriate research, and implement a solution.

 

Hanock says her greatest reward comes when she watches students make good choices.

 

A one-word sign — Care! — is posted above her classroom door. "Students," she says, "have come to understand the depth and the gravity of this one simple word."