Tamara B.

Copperwood Elemantary

This class is different than most classes. This class is filled with the most gifted students in the Peoria USD. But each student is gifted in a different way, such as some are very good at math and only average at reading while others excel at reading and are only average at math. Thus Mrs. Boylan is challenged with a group of smart kids all of whom need different lesson levels and plans for their different abilities. Although the students are smart, they are also 6-7 year olds with that attention span and maturity. Thus she cannot just teach them as if they all were third graders. They may have the abilities of older kids, but they have the body and maturity of a first grader. Mrs. Boylan works tirelessly to develop creative lessons for her class, which can be access by all the students. To be able to teach a class to so many different levels of students is incredibly difficult, as each lesson needs to be engaging, stimulating, educational, but yet not leave any student behind. Mrs. Boylan's lesson plans are creative and interesting (for example right now they are working on a unit on the economy, so they students are developing businesses and products to sell) but are able to challenge each student on their own level. I wholeheartedly support Mrs' Boylan for this nomination. She is an excellent teacher and pushes students to be the best they can be. My daughter, for example, has moved up two grades in reading comprehension (from 2nd to 4th) in the span of the fall semester. I can't ask for a better or more caring teacher than Tamara Boylan.

Signed,
Pamela Marshall