Golden Acorn and Outstanding Educator Winners!
Charisse Tsukamoto:
This educator is someone who knows all of the students at Sunrise and knows almost every name. She is enthusiastic, positive and very thoughtful. Her accomplishments include, being a founding member of the “Battle of the Books,” organizing yearly McTeacher’s Nights, helping to save the AR program at Sunrise, applying for the Boeing Grant to fund the AR program and receiving $1800.00, and teaching origami to students for years at multicultural night. This year for Multicultural Night, she not only served on the planning committee, but she helped to create the new Sunrise Dragon, recruited students and families to do booths and helped students to teach the hula.
As the school Librarian, she takes the time to learn about each student. She knows their interests, remembers their reading levels, and knows what books might fit them. Some of the things that she has been heard saying are:
· “I have a terrific book that we just got in and I was thinking of you…”
· “I know that you just finished that series and I think that you will also like this one…”
· “I have confidence that you can read this book which is a little more challenging than what you are currently reading…”
· “I have picked this book especially for you…”
Charisse engages each student in what they just read and has created an environment at Sunrise that values reading! She has made a significant difference in every child who has attended Sunrise and makes Sunrise a better school!
Julie Scranton:
This year Sunrise Elementary is awarding its “Outstanding Educator Award” to one of our favorite teachers. This teacher embodies excellence in education. She is a dedicated teacher who is able to meet the needs of her students with patience, kindness and discipline that is prompt and seamless. Time for learning is maximized because of her management skills, which allow her to run a very organized classroom. Children in her class love to learn because she makes it fun and interesting. She is able to support and challenge students to stretch themselves beyond their comfort zone.
This teacher is building a strong foundation for her students to move on to the next grade. You will often find this teacher, well after school hours, in her classroom preparing for the next day. She is actively conscious of each and every student in her class and is able to detail their education so that they taste success and love to come to school. Children in her class are excited to learn because she makes it fun and interesting. Her quiet, calm and warm personality makes her approachable and well loved by her students.
Her reading and spelling programs have 5 year olds learning sight words and gaining confidence to go from non readers to emergent readers. She follows the district curriculum and supplements with the Land of the Letter People.
As you can see this woman is well deserving of our award. This award is long overdue for such an amazing teacher and we are excited to give Julie Scranton the “Outstanding Educator Award”.
Thank you Julie, for all that you do for our kids at Sunrise!
Debbie Akiyama:
This nominee has been described as passionate, dedicated, enthusiastic, dependable, invaluable, and as volunteer extraordinaire! Her support has included staff, students and the entire school! She has clearly been involved in many areas at Sunrise. She is constant and equitable. Her volunteer work includes volunteering on field trips, helping in the class and at class parties, teaching and creating numerous Art Docent lessons, taking photos for the yearbook, and sharing her Chinese heritage and Chinese New Year with students at Sunrise. She has spent countless hours behind the scenes and you can usually find her helping to set-up at most events. In addition, she has chaired the Reading Program, Staff Appreciation, and the Nominating Committees as well as coordinating the end of the year slide show.
Some of the special things that were mentioned by those who nominated her:
· Helping with the new parent pick-up system and after being treated terribly by parents, going back to help again and again.
· Walking to Sunrise on the snow day to make sure that students got home safely and to help staff clean off their cars to get off safely.
· Making special Reindeer cookies that she and her Co-chair made for each teacher in December
· Sifting flour over a tree branch to demonstrate how snow falls from the sky just on the tops of the branches
· Making and donating delicious pulled pork twice for the staff appreciation dinner because of the snow day and literally eating the first batch
Debbie Akiyama is an invaluable member of the Sunrise community and truly deserves this award. Her service to Sunrise is exemplary! In addition to her work at Sunrise, she is an active volunteer at her church and works full time.
Karen Stewart:
This volunteer has been active in the Sunrise Community for eight years. She is dedicated to the students at Sunrise and works hard to make it a great place to learn. She has not only volunteered in the classroom, at parties, and on field trips, but she has also volunteered for many of the events and programs at Sunrise including the art docent program. She chaired Kindergarten Round-up, Movie Night, Field Day, and 6th Grade Party among others. She is involved in the Fun Run year after year. She encourages others to join PTA and to become more involved. She has been coaching the volleyball team for the last few years and recently stepped up to coach the Sunrise Track Team. In the fall when the Movie Night was going to be cancelled, she jumped in to save it! She is currently serving her second year as the Vice President of Programs.
As Vice President of Programs she has been an invaluable member of the executive board. She has taken the time to give the historical perspective of Sunrise. The educational assemblies that she has planned have all been well received. This year she went above and beyond and organized classroom workshops for the Toymaker. In addition, she got the motivational N.E.D. assembly for free with the understanding that we would sell yoyos—and we did sell a lot of yoyos.
Karen Stewart is an invaluable member of the PTA and a pillar to the Sunrise community. She is always there and jumps in wherever she is needed. She truly deserves this award! She is not only active in her 3 children’s lives and volunteers in her church but also works as a substitute teacher in the Kent School District at least a few days a week!
This educator is someone who knows all of the students at Sunrise and knows almost every name. She is enthusiastic, positive and very thoughtful. Her accomplishments include, being a founding member of the “Battle of the Books,” organizing yearly McTeacher’s Nights, helping to save the AR program at Sunrise, applying for the Boeing Grant to fund the AR program and receiving $1800.00, and teaching origami to students for years at multicultural night. This year for Multicultural Night, she not only served on the planning committee, but she helped to create the new Sunrise Dragon, recruited students and families to do booths and helped students to teach the hula.
As the school Librarian, she takes the time to learn about each student. She knows their interests, remembers their reading levels, and knows what books might fit them. Some of the things that she has been heard saying are:
· “I have a terrific book that we just got in and I was thinking of you…”
· “I know that you just finished that series and I think that you will also like this one…”
· “I have confidence that you can read this book which is a little more challenging than what you are currently reading…”
· “I have picked this book especially for you…”
Charisse engages each student in what they just read and has created an environment at Sunrise that values reading! She has made a significant difference in every child who has attended Sunrise and makes Sunrise a better school!
Julie Scranton:
This year Sunrise Elementary is awarding its “Outstanding Educator Award” to one of our favorite teachers. This teacher embodies excellence in education. She is a dedicated teacher who is able to meet the needs of her students with patience, kindness and discipline that is prompt and seamless. Time for learning is maximized because of her management skills, which allow her to run a very organized classroom. Children in her class love to learn because she makes it fun and interesting. She is able to support and challenge students to stretch themselves beyond their comfort zone.
This teacher is building a strong foundation for her students to move on to the next grade. You will often find this teacher, well after school hours, in her classroom preparing for the next day. She is actively conscious of each and every student in her class and is able to detail their education so that they taste success and love to come to school. Children in her class are excited to learn because she makes it fun and interesting. Her quiet, calm and warm personality makes her approachable and well loved by her students.
Her reading and spelling programs have 5 year olds learning sight words and gaining confidence to go from non readers to emergent readers. She follows the district curriculum and supplements with the Land of the Letter People.
As you can see this woman is well deserving of our award. This award is long overdue for such an amazing teacher and we are excited to give Julie Scranton the “Outstanding Educator Award”.
Thank you Julie, for all that you do for our kids at Sunrise!
Debbie Akiyama:
This nominee has been described as passionate, dedicated, enthusiastic, dependable, invaluable, and as volunteer extraordinaire! Her support has included staff, students and the entire school! She has clearly been involved in many areas at Sunrise. She is constant and equitable. Her volunteer work includes volunteering on field trips, helping in the class and at class parties, teaching and creating numerous Art Docent lessons, taking photos for the yearbook, and sharing her Chinese heritage and Chinese New Year with students at Sunrise. She has spent countless hours behind the scenes and you can usually find her helping to set-up at most events. In addition, she has chaired the Reading Program, Staff Appreciation, and the Nominating Committees as well as coordinating the end of the year slide show.
Some of the special things that were mentioned by those who nominated her:
· Helping with the new parent pick-up system and after being treated terribly by parents, going back to help again and again.
· Walking to Sunrise on the snow day to make sure that students got home safely and to help staff clean off their cars to get off safely.
· Making special Reindeer cookies that she and her Co-chair made for each teacher in December
· Sifting flour over a tree branch to demonstrate how snow falls from the sky just on the tops of the branches
· Making and donating delicious pulled pork twice for the staff appreciation dinner because of the snow day and literally eating the first batch
Debbie Akiyama is an invaluable member of the Sunrise community and truly deserves this award. Her service to Sunrise is exemplary! In addition to her work at Sunrise, she is an active volunteer at her church and works full time.
Karen Stewart:
This volunteer has been active in the Sunrise Community for eight years. She is dedicated to the students at Sunrise and works hard to make it a great place to learn. She has not only volunteered in the classroom, at parties, and on field trips, but she has also volunteered for many of the events and programs at Sunrise including the art docent program. She chaired Kindergarten Round-up, Movie Night, Field Day, and 6th Grade Party among others. She is involved in the Fun Run year after year. She encourages others to join PTA and to become more involved. She has been coaching the volleyball team for the last few years and recently stepped up to coach the Sunrise Track Team. In the fall when the Movie Night was going to be cancelled, she jumped in to save it! She is currently serving her second year as the Vice President of Programs.
As Vice President of Programs she has been an invaluable member of the executive board. She has taken the time to give the historical perspective of Sunrise. The educational assemblies that she has planned have all been well received. This year she went above and beyond and organized classroom workshops for the Toymaker. In addition, she got the motivational N.E.D. assembly for free with the understanding that we would sell yoyos—and we did sell a lot of yoyos.
Karen Stewart is an invaluable member of the PTA and a pillar to the Sunrise community. She is always there and jumps in wherever she is needed. She truly deserves this award! She is not only active in her 3 children’s lives and volunteers in her church but also works as a substitute teacher in the Kent School District at least a few days a week!
