Jill Stauffer
George Washington School
Kindergarten Teacher

Mrs. Jill Stauffer was honored by the Governor's Office, the Deptartment of Education and the Milken Family Foundation for being among the very best teachers in the nation.

Jill A. Stauffer uses differentiated instruction and hands-on activities on a daily basis. She created a program called the Author's Tea in order to showcase student work for parents and administrators, thereby nurturing student confidence, and taught letters of the alphabet through a salad-making activity in which each ingredient represented a different letter. Clearly her holistic approach to teaching reaches students, as her pupils consistently demonstrate significant gains on assessment tests. Mrs. Stauffer's creation of a class Web site, designed to maintain daily parent communication, evolved into a school-wide practice, and she has been recognized by the district for her innovative ideas regarding learning centers in first grade. She has also developed curriculum guides for a variety of subjects, implemented use of multiple computers in the classroom, and conducted district and state mentoring.