Shawnee Mission educator is Kansas Teacher of the Year

Shawnee Mission West High School foreign language teacher Karen Tritt is the 2010 Kansas Teacher of the Year. Tritt was named the winner during a ceremony held Saturday in Wichita attended by 450 education officials, corporate leaders and policy makers.

“I am pleased and honored to present this award to Karen Tritt,” said Interim Kansas Department of Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker. “Her enthusiasm for learning and her passion for teaching are evident in the positive environment she has created not only in her classroom but also in her district and community.”

Tritt will work with the eight finalists in the statewide competition to advocate for education and teaching. She said good teachers are committed to students, highly motivational and always learning.

“Every day I send my child to school hoping that his teachers will treat him with respect and dignity, will know him for the delightfully unique individual that he is, will expect the best from him and hold him accountable for his learning, will find ways for him to use his strengths within the classroom and will give him opportunities to shine in front of his peers,” she said in a statement. “By the same token each student who walks through my door every day has been entrusted to me by loving parents or guardians who hope for these same qualities in their child’s teachers.”

Tritt has worked at Shawnee Mission West, 8800 W. 85th St., Overland Park, for four years. In addition to teaching Spanish, she is also the sponsor of the school’s freshman mentoring program.

Shawnee Mission West Principal Charles McClean wrote in his nomination letter that Tritt is a colleague who “emulates effectively engaging teaching skills to meet the needs of all students.”

Tritt has been a classroom teacher for 17 years and was the first in Kansas to gain National Board Certification in World Languages Other than English in 2003.

“We are very proud of Karen,” Superintendent Gene Johnson said in a statement. “She is an exemplary teacher who will serve as an outstanding advocate and a representative for educators statewide.”

Tritt wins $4,000 in cash from a competition sponsor and a Lifelong Learning Scholarship from several higher education institutions across the state. She also wins an educational technology package valued at about $16,000, an ambassadorship that will provide funds for travel, a sponsored lease of a car and ethanol gasoline for her to travel for Teacher of the Year duties.

The Teacher of the Year program is a state and national competition. The national program is a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers and is presented by the ING Foundation. The Kansas program is sponsored by the Kansas State Department of Education.

Across Kansas, 91 educators were nominated for the award. KSDE appoints regional selection panels to select semifinalists and finalists from each region.

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