At Alice Birney Elementary School in Metairie, fellow teachers used to make copies at the machine outside Susan Panzavecchia's classroom just to listen to her teach. A positive, enthusiastic and energetic presence in the classroom, "Mrs. P," as she is known, is also an expert pedagogue, incorporating research-based strategies, hands-on activities, cooperative learning groups, problem-solving activities and technology integration into her lessons, many of which she created herself. In addition to teaching fourth grade, Mrs. Panzavecchia is also the school's professional development resource teacher, providing staff development on highly effective instructional strategies which she often models in other teachers' classrooms. Her students' math index scores on the state assessment have improved every year since she began teaching fourth-grade math, and last year all but two students scored at the Advanced or Mastery level. At the end of her first year of teaching, she received the Sallie Mae Teacher of the Year Award. Though the copier no longer sits outside her classroom, there's still much there for fellow teachers to emulate.
