ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DISPLAYING THE SAME drive today that she had 24 years ago landed Lynn Williams the distinction as Roanoke County's Outstanding Educator of the Year.
Lynn Williams says kindergartners are like sponges: There's a lot to learn the first year in school, and they soak it all up.
She teaches them about the ABCs, numbers, addition and subtraction, animals, zoos, lakes, mountains and rivers.
That's just the academics.
Social skills take just as much time. She teaches the children rules for living:
Share with classmates, play fair, don't hit people, put things back where you find them, clean up your mess, don't take things that aren't yours, flush the toilets, and dozens of other principles for getting along with people.
And when the schoolwork is finished, she distributes Popsicles and ice cream bars to her class.
Some educators think kindergarten is the most important year in school. Robert Fulghum underscored the point with the title of his famous book, "Everything I Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten."
Yet, kindergarten teachers seldom make news. They deal with such basics that they are often overlooked.
But Williams, a teacher at Fort Lewis Elementary School, has been recognized for her skill and success in working with children as they begin their academic careers.
She has been named Roanoke County's Outstanding Educator of the Year by the County Council of the Parent-Teacher Association.
Spend an hour in Williams' classroom and you quickly sense her rapport with her 20 kindergartners. She moved effortlessly around the room on a recent day, teaching the children the traits and habits of zebras - a lesson linked to the last letter in the alphabet.
She reminds them of their study of insects. She notes that insects sometimes alight on the backs of zebras. Birds ride on zebras and eat the insects. Animals often help each other, she tells the children.
Williams talks of an upcoming field trip to a zoo. The children are eager to ask questions, express their thoughts and recount their experiences with animals. Their hands shoot up as they plead to be recognized.
After Williams has finished the zebra lesson, she has the kindergartners color zebra stripes on large Z-shaped letters. The children cut out the letters after they put the stripes on them.
She frequently takes her students on field trips to awaken their interest in the community. She has taken her class to an apple orchard, Virginia Tech farms, the Science Museum of Western Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
Williams brings in firefighters to talk to the children and artists to paint with them. The kindergartners in her class plant seeds and touch baby animals.
The PTA Council cited Williams for teaching the children how their community affects them: "Every year it seems as though there are wonderful new experiences for the kindergartners as a new group of parents and community leaders become involved in Lynn's classroom."
Williams, 45, has been a teacher for 24 years, including 14 years teaching kindergarten. She has taught other elementary grades and remedial reading, but kindergarten is her favorite.
"Five- and 6-year-olds have so much energy. They keep me going," she said. "The first year I taught, I had 30 children in a kindergarten class, but I never thought about it being too many."
Kindergartners grow rapidly - both physically and socially - during their first year in school. They can test a teacher's skill and patience.
But Williams said she has never considered teaching to be a burden or just a job.
"I'm doing something I love. I consider it to be an investment of time in helping children to grow and develop," she said. "I find them so refreshing."
Williams never expected to be a teacher until she enrolled at Longwood College. She grew up in Roanoke County and attended Fort Lewis Elementary as a child. She has a special love for the school where she has taught more than a dozen years, even though the conditions there could be better.
The school is crowded and old. It is not air conditioned. There are fans in the high ceilings, but Williams' classroom has still been hot this week. She's not complaining, however, because a major renovation of the school will begin next month.
She's already dreaming about what she describes as a "real kindergarten room" in the refurbished school.
The PTA Council also cited Williams for her good working relationship with parents and the community, her sponsorship of the student government and her work with educational organizations.
Gaye Sigmon, Fort Lewis principal, said Williams makes a special effort to involve parents in the education of their children.
"She meets with parents, writes notes and makes telephone calls to keep parents informed of the child's progress," Sigmon said. "Parents are welcome to visit the classroom, have lunch and to share their own expertise with the students."
Williams was also commended for her success in the inclusion of a multihandicapped child in her class. Sigmon said Williams took special training, conferred with the child's parents and consulted with special education officials to help ensure that the girl would be comfortable in the class.
Except for two years in North Carolina, Williams has spent all of her teaching career in Roanoke County. She has taught at Oak Grove Elementary and South Salem Elementary when it was part of the county school system.
In the classroom, William said, she sometimes draws on her parental experience. She has four children, including one who is a student at the University of Virginia, two in high school and another in elementary school.
Williams said raising four children while teaching has been stressful at times, but she said she managed it because she enjoys teaching. Watching her children grow up has sparked an interest in a new challenge as she gets older.
"I've gotten the ambition to move to high school," she said, "when I get too old to bounce around with the young children, and to try to make classes interesting for [high school] students."
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ARNE KUHLMANN/Staff. Roanoke County's educator of theby CNByear Lynn WIlliams says the vibrance of her young students helps
keep her going. color.