Vicki Swartz Roscoe
1999 Inductee
Curriculum Resource Teacher
Orlando, Florida
Total years as a classroom teacher: 20
With student-led conferences with parents, Vicki Swartz Roscoe empowers her students to actually take responsibility for the reporting of their strengths and areas needing improvement.
An Internet web site for parents articulates why math curriculum looks different from when parents went to school, why we teach handwriting the way we do, why our report cards are different, how we meet the needs of the gifted in the classroom, about the standardized tests we give, and explains the various stages of spelling development and how parents can help their children at home.
She plans special events like Young Writers' Conferences, which involve parents as helpers and as guest speakers, in addition to Family Math Nights, Multi-cultural Fairs, Curriculum Nights, and presentations of Bilingual and Exceptional Education Issues.
All of her themes of studies take students into the community. When her fourth-graders studied the Chattahoochee River of Georgia they visited the river, analyzed water samples, painted it, wrote poems about it, and decided to mount a campaign to teach others not to pollute it. They have taken field trips to dams, city halls, state capitols and historical museums, and have panned for gold as part of studies of American history.
"Her abilities to take teachers and children from where they are, and to lift them up to new levels of achievement is remarkable. . .I would have given anything I have to have had one of my own children in her classroom."
--Jan Berhard, colleague, third-grade teacher, Addison Elementary School
"Vicki also brings to the school enormous enthusiasm and unwavering commitment to do everything possible to help students and teachers meet the educational standards. She has the vitality and experience to develop our teachers into the finest educators imaginable. . .Mrs. Vicki Roscoe is the consummate teacher: teacher of teachers; teacher of students; teacher of parents."
--Leanna Isaacson, Principal, Southwood Elementary School
"Vicki taught me more about curriculum, assessment, and research in those three years than anyone in my 31 years. My boss stated, " I learned more about the philosophy and practice of multi-age classrooms from Vicki in 20 minutes than I did in a whole weekend with a nationally known educator."
--Betty Campbell, retired principal, Portland Public Schools
Education
1986 | Central Washington University, B.A. Early Childhood Education |
1983 | Bank Street College of Education, M.S. in Teacher Education |
Portland State University, University of Washington, Central Washington, graduate work |
Teaching Experience
1997-present | Orange County Public Schools, Orlando, FL, Curriculum Resource Teacher |
1995-97 | Cobb County Public Schools, Marietta, GA, Grades 3-4 |
1986-94 | Portland Public Schools, Portland, OR, Grades 2-5, Curriculum Coordinator |
1978-86 | Selah Public Schools, Selah, WA Grades 2-5, Gifted |
1983-84 | Fulbright Exchange to England, Grade 4, Braintree, England |
Honors/Awards
1998 | Teacher of the Year |
1988 | Australian Exchange Teacher |
1986 | Fulbright to China |
1983-84 | Fulbright to England |