Teachers of the Year Emphasize Innovation

Patricia Ann (Pann) Baltz of the Arcadia Unified School District and Edward Donald Riegler of the Alhambra School District are among the five teachers selected by state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig as California’s Teachers of the Year for 1993.

Baltz, although disabled by a series of strokes, has been teaching for 10 years and is a mentor teacher in science for her district. A fourth-grade teacher at Camino Grove Elementary School, she tries to make her classroom an adventure.

“My large stuffed bear might be dressed in the clothes of an orchestra (conductor) or train conductor to help me teach a lesson about electricity,” she said. “(Students) would then seek to discover which items on their science tray could act as a conductor of an electric current. If our artist of the month were Michelangelo, you might find my students under their desks after lunch painting a scene on the paper taped to the surface above them, gaining an understanding of what it was like to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.”

Baltz, a UCLA graduate, is active in the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra, PTA and American Heart Assn.

Riegler, who received his Ph.D. in British history from UCLA, has taught for 28 years. He teaches U.S. history, world history and economics at Alhambra High School.

“My teaching style has changed greatly in past years to accommodate new concepts and strategies,” he said. “I have found that flexibility is an important ingredient in teaching. As our students, their backgrounds and our society change, we teachers must also change our techniques.”

Riegler said student-centered learning is the focal point of all his classes, with lessons involving his students as active participants.

He teaches a range of students: recent immigrants, at-risk students and advanced-placement candidates. He also serves as his school’s Gifted and Talented Education coordinator. The teachers were selected with the assistance of a committee that included representatives of the education community. The review process included screening of applications and on-site visits. Fifty-eight nominations were received, mostly through regional recognition programs organized by county offices of education.

Caltech Gift to Fund Work in Space Sciences

Caltech has received a gift of $100,000 from the Lewis A. Kingsley Foundation of Garden Grove to establish the Merle Kingsley Endowed Fund for Astrophysics and Space Science.

The fund will provide discretionary support to faculty and students involved in the teaching, research, and study of issues at the forefront of astrophysics and space science.

The fund is named for Merle Kingsley Elkus, who with her late husband, Lewis Kingsley, established the foundation in 1963. The primary funding area of the foundation is higher and secondary education in the form of scholarships to organizations in the Los Angeles area.