
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 18, 1995                   TAG: 9509180112
SECTION: NEWSFUN                    PAGE: NF-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TEACHER OF THE WEEK

Louann Landreth and her husband are not biological parents. But that doesn't mean Landreth, a fifth-grade teacher in Christiansburg, doesn't have any children.

"I see my students as my own children," Landreth said. "I adopt them for a year and treat them the way their parents would want them treated."

A bonus for Landreth's pupils is the studies in nature they receive. Landreth takes her classes on field trips to the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests where they get to select what they'll study. They conduct experiments and write reports on what they've observed.

"I want them to have an appreciation of the fantastic area of Virginia we live in," Landreth said. "I hope they'll be concerned enough to take care of it, because if they don't, it won't be here.

"Mrs. Landreth is a very caring person. She really teaches in a very enthusiastic way," said the pupil who nominated her.

A native New Yorker who graduated from Virginia Tech, Landreth enjoys knitting, gardening, music, and especially "getting out, hiking around and looking at nature."

by CNB