Kathy Wenninger teaches third grade at an integrated arts and science elementary school that she helped plan and open, The daVinci Academy in Colorado Springs. She is also working on her administrative license through Academy District Twenty's cohort program. At the time of her award, Ms. Wenninger's third-grade classroom at Frontier Elementary School in Colorado Springs came alive through the integration of arts within a standards-based curriculum. It was not uncommon to find her students waltzing to Beethoven, taking an imaginary flight to China, or creating medieval panels in the course of math, history and creative writing lessons. Ms. Wenninger's instructional creativity helped the class maintain focus on learning standards, resulting in 85 percent of her students scoring at or above grade level on high-stakes exams. In 2002, she traveled to Japan as a Fulbright Scholar, learning about the Japanese culture and education system.
1986 University of Colorado, B.S.
