DATE: Thursday, March 20, 1997              TAG: 9703200338

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  100 lines

WINNING TEACHERS FIND WAY TO REACH STUDENTS

After he finished writing a letter to his hamsters about how to add fractions, fourth-grader Benny Fleenor had something to say about his teacher.

``She deserves this,'' Benny, his hand to the side of his mouth for discretion, said of Lindsay Crump Porzio, Chesapeake's Elementary Teacher of the Year. ``She's a great teacher.''

No doubt Benny's sentiments would be echoed by the students of Linda Dobbins Laumann, Chesapeake's Teacher of the Year, and Rita Lopane, the city's Secondary Teacher of the Year. The three were honored during an awards ceremony Wednesday night at Deep Creek High School.

Thirty-nine other teachers were recognized as their schools' teacher of the year.

Laumann, a work and family studies teacher at Hickory High School, took top honors. Though a 20-year veteran, she received her award for essentially becoming a first-year teacher again. This year she switched from teaching occupational child care at Indian River High School to instructing students in catering at Hickory.

``They called me in the middle of the summer. It was a big decision,'' said Laumann. The call came just as she was getting ready to leave on an anniversary trip with her husband, Jerry, whom she met while teaching at Indian River. ``It was very hard to leave all that.''

Now, well into her first year as a catering teacher, Laumann has settled into her new job.

``Once you're a teacher, you can almost teach anything - oh, those are chocolate molds, aren't they beautiful?'' Laumann said, interrupting herself to praise the work of a student passing by.

In the next moment, she reminded others in the class that it was 2:10, time for the cookies to go in. She seemed to know, without looking, just what was going on behind her back - and what should be.

Lopane likes to have fun with her sixth-grade reading and writing students at Oscar Smith Middle School, kind of like her favorite teacher, Sadie Mathias, from when she was growing up in Ohio, did.

``Bless her heart. I'm sure she's in that great classroom in the sky. She'd bring in her homemade banana nut bread. Isn't that something? Kind of a grandmother type. I thought, `Wow, I want to be like that,' '' Lopane said. ``But I don't make banana nut bread.''

In her 14 years of teaching - which was interrupted when she stopped to raise her family - Lopane has seen a lot of changes. She said it's more challenging to be a teacher now because more students are coming to school with difficult home and economic issues.

``When they don't have breakfast or a warm place to stay, it affects the learning process,'' she said.

What Lopane finds works well with those students - and all students - is to find the positive in the smallest things. She has her students pick out a favorite line of their own writing, which she dubs Golden Lines. ``I have them write them out and stick them on the bulletin board with their names on it,'' Lopane said.

Lopane said she likes to help students spice up their students' work and tap into their creativity and sense of humor.

``Sometimes they over-use words, like `good' and `nice.' I call these oatmeal words or vanilla pudding words because they're so blah and kind of tasteless,'' Lopane said.

Lopane remembers well her first day of teaching.

``It was one of the most exciting days of my life. I was just thinking I would teach these little sponges everything. I was just going to be the most wonderful teacher ever. I was very idealistic. I didn't realize how much there was to learn,'' Lopane said.

Porzio, who teaches at G.A. Treakle Elementary School, could relate - though she has been teaching only six years and is the youngest of this year's districtwide teachers of the year.

``You have all these great expectations of what you'll do when you get in the classroom. I had all these great ideas, but there are only 24 hours in the day,'' said Porzio, adding that on her first day of teaching her father sent her a wreath with the note, ``Welcome To The Real World.''

If Benny's esteem is any indication, Porzio has done well in the real world of teaching. The more challenges the better, as far as she's concerned, including last year when she was given five deaf students to teach when she didn't know sign language. She said the experience just made her a better teacher for all her students.

``It didn't seem like it was possible, but it was. I like challenges,'' Porzio said, adding that her attitude toward challenges rubs off even on students with low self esteem. ``. . . If you're positive, the kids will model how you are.''

After Porzio's lesson on adding fractions, she told the kids to write a letter to a friend explaining how to do it. Benny chose his hamsters; others chose human friends.

It was a tough assignment, and one struggling student asked for help. Porzio gently prodded him through the process, getting him to come up with the answers himself.

The first time she asked, ``Are you on a roll now?'' he shook his head no.

When she asked the question the second time he was too absorbed in his work to notice and she moved on to help another student. ILLUSTRATION: STEVE EARLEY

The Virginian-Pilot

Chesapeake Teacher of the Year Linda Dobbins Laumann, left, works

with sophmore Yadira Aviles during a catering class at Hickory High

School. Laumann was recognized for taking on a new challenge - she

used to teach occupational child care - and settling in with her new

students.

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