ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 5, 1995 TAG: 9512050064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
A TEACHER AT FORT LEWIS ELEMENTARY has been named Virginia's Conservation Teacher of the Year for her innovations in teaching kids about the environment.
For Ann Johnson, the environment is more than just a topic for children to study or a school project. For her, it is way of thinking - an attitude about the world.
As a teacher, she tries to help her students develop that perspective so it will be natural for them always to consider environmental issues.
Little did she expect that her feeling for preserving the environment and saving natural resources would help her win a state award.
Monday, Johnson was named Virginia's Conservation Teacher of the Year for elementary schools by the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
She said the award really belongs to Fort Lewis Elementary School in Roanoke County, where she teaches, because "nothing happens without teamwork."
Johnson downplayed her role in winning the recognition but said she is glad that "some of the good and healthy things going on in schools are being recognized at a time when the schools get so much negative press."
A special education teacher, Johnson said she tries to incorporate environmental issues into all of her classes. She organizes study units for her pupils in kindergarten through sixth grade using books and poems with environmental themes.
Johnson helped establish an aluminium recycling program at the school and formed an Environmental Education Committee.
And she had a key role in the development of a playground that is composed mostly of recycled materials.
"She has done so much for our school. She deserves it," Principal Gaye Sigmon said.
Johnson has made environmental education a main focus at Fort Lewis since she came to the school four years ago, Sigmon said.
Recently, the school was in the news when it dedicated the playground of recycled material, which Johnson prefers to call the "environmental play area."
But Fort Lewis' environmental program is more extensive than just the playground and involves the parents and community.
Last year, the children recycled aluminium cans to raise money to adopt an endangered arctic fox at Mill Mountain Zoo. "We had a big chart where the children could see how many we had collected, and they all got involved in it."
The children are recycling cans this year to replace an arboretum at the school that was recently vandalized.
She said the children already have collected almost as many cans since school opened as they did all of last year.
Johnson, who has been teaching in Roanoke County schools for 12 years, said she is pleased that Fort Lewis is being recognized for its conservation and environmental programs.
"I very much wanted to go there to teach. It is a very special place," she said. "It is a small school and a close community that lends itself to teamwork."
She said the children, parents, teachers and community have worked hard to encourage conservation and environmental awareness. "It is a wonderful atmosphere."
Johnson, 49, is a New York native who taught previously at Burlington and W. E. Cundiff elementary schools in Roanoke County. She is a graduate of Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, and earned a master's degree at Virginia Commonwealth University.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. Teacher Ann Johnson calls Fortby CNBLewis Elementary "a very special place."