At Eisenhower Elementary School in Dubuque, first- and second-grade looping teacher Tammy Duehr engages students in active, hands-on learning activities. She creates a classroom Cabinet in which each student is given a role such as the secretary of health and human services, who is responsible for escorting children to the nurse when needed. She includes LD, mildly disabled and autistic children in her classroom and all of her students consistently score well above grade level in reading. Under Miss Duehr's leadership, all first- and second-grade teachers at the school loop. She developed a yearlong district Staff Wellness Program and is involved in the state-sponsored "Every Child Reads" program. Outside the classroom, Miss Duehr can be found tutoring foreign-speaking citizens in English and helping organize dinners for low-income residents in a community program called "Food for Soul."
