Pres. Obama Awards 3 RIC Alumni for Excellence in Teaching

Three of the four Rhode Island recipients are RIC alumni: Kristen Jahnz ’93, M.A. ’01, who earned her B.A. in secondary education math and her master’s in math. She teaches advanced mathematics at Cumberland High School; Barbara Pellegrino ’93, who earned her B.A. in elementary education and now teaches at the Harold F. Scott Elementary School in Warwick; and Debra Turchetti-Ramm ’92, who earned her B.A. in elementary education and now teaches at the Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School in Johnston.

Recipients are selected from each of the 50 states and four of the U.S. jurisdictions by a panel of prominent mathematicians, scientists, mathematics/science educators, district-level personnel and classroom teachers. In all, 213 teachers were awarded at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. last month. Awardees received a certificate signed by the President of the United States, attended a series of STEM-related professional development opportunities in Washington and received a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation.

Jahnz, who has been teaching advanced mathematics courses, including algebra II and calculus, for the past 20 years, is described by her colleagues as an “extraordinary teacher” who brings to her classroom “incredible energy and excitement.”

“I’ve seen kids struggle in math for years and then they will get Kristen for a math teacher and suddenly they will do well. The excitement on their faces is priceless,” said Julie Butler, school counselor.

Jahnz’s philosophy is that anyone can be successful at math and her goal is to reinforce that in her students. One of her former students, Virginia Cafferky, remembered how so many students came to the first day of class feeling fated to fail. But Jahnz used “her own excitement about math and about teaching to animate the subject,” Cafferky said. “She gives it life, so that even the quadratic formula, which strikes fear into the hearts of countless fully grown adults, is remembered fondly by students who sing it to the tune of ‘Pop Goes the Weasel.’ When a teacher cheers for their subject and welcomes discussion about it both inside and outside of class, it is inevitable that the same excitement will infect her students.”

Jahnz is advisor for the school’s award-winning Math Team, and she is content leader for the Math Department. “She is an inspiration to her colleagues and students,” said Butler, “one who is highly respected in the school community and a true leader who leads by example.”

Pellegrino worked in banking before she returned to school to earn her teaching degree, and she has stood in front of a classroom ever since. Now in her 20th year at Harold F. Scott Elementary School, Pellegrino is nicknamed Mathematics Woman, a type of superhero. By using hands-on interactive activities, her six- and seven-year-olds not only find math fun, they excel at it.

“First-graders are concrete thinkers,” said Pellegrino, “so, you need concrete materials to teach abstract math concepts. We use counters, blocks and other concrete manipulatives, and they love to play with these things in a mathematical way.”

Pellegrino also spends a lot of time talking about numbers. She recalled a day when two boys in her class raised their hands and asked, “Ms. Pellegrino, is zero an odd number or an even number?”

In Pellegrino’s class, children are taught to explain their thinking. So Pellegrino replied, “I’m interested to hear what you think.”

One of the boys posited, “If you took even patterns and made them go the opposite way – 6, 4, 2, 0 – then zero would come out an even number.” However, the other boy countered, “But Ms. Pellegrino, you said you can tell an even number by breaking a snap cube in half. You said, if it’s an even number, both halves should be the same. But with zero there’s nothing to break in half.”

Pellegrino chuckled at the thought of their skilled problem-solving. She said, “If I had not been engaging them in different math activities all the time they would never have had that conversation.” 

“When I think of my little first-graders I see them as such an open book when it comes to learning,” she went on. “Some are ready to learn and others have already been told that they’re not good at math even at six years old. I just want them to understand that they can understand math and that math is everywhere in their daily lives. If you can start them at a young age, teaching them that math is both important and fun, they will hold onto that for the rest of their lives.” 

At Harold F. Scott School, children have the highest PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) test scores in Warwick.

A fourth-grade teacher for almost 20 years, it was only recently that Turchetti-Ramm transformed her traditional classroom into a blending learning environment. That is, she placed her lesson plans online and allowed her students to learn and progress at their own pace. 

“Visitors were often impressed by the student’s passion for learning and the varied learning styles that are encouraged in her classroom,” said former principal and current District Superintendent of Schools Bernard DiLullo.

Turchetti-Ramm’s classroom became recognized as a Blended Learning Lighthouse Classroom, and in 2016 DiLullo created a new position for her – instructional technology coordinator. In this new role Turchetti-Ramm works with a cohort of K-5 teachers to create Blended Learning Lighthouse Classrooms for the entire Johnston Public Schools District. 

“I teach educators to create blended learning classrooms that draw other teachers to adopt them,” she said.

Turchetti-Ramm is a founding member of EdUnderground, a Rhode Island-based hands-on laboratory where teachers discover, explore, create and experiment with technology integration strategies, blended learning models and other innovative tactics, using hardware platforms and software programs.

She has appeared as a guest on the Meet Education Project podcast and in a segment of PBS’s Rhode Island Classroom, a 30-minute quarterly series showcasing interesting and innovative programs and people in the Rhode Island education system. In 2015 she was selected as a PBS Lead Digital Innovator and was named 2015-2016 Teacher of the Year for the Johnston School District. She was also one of the top three finalists for the 2016 Rhode Island Teacher of the Year.

President Barak Obama recognized all of these exceptional teachers for being key to this country’s future. “As the United States continues to lead the way in the innovation that is shaping our future,” he said, “these excellent teachers are preparing students from all corners of the country with the science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills that help keep us on the cutting edge.”