Excellence in Education Award: Joann Lens, teacher

From the October Board Blue Book:

JOANN LENS recently earned the distinction of Elementary School Teacher of the Year, an honor she shares with another elementary school teacher in the City of Madison. It is a significant honor for which there was competition among teachers statewide. Ms. Lens was considered for the title of Teacher of the Year after having been named a Kohl Teacher Fellow by the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation.

JoAnn Lens is a graduate of Milwaukee’s Marquette University. Her career at MPS extends 18 years. Ms. Lens began her career with the district as a fourth-grade teacher at 35th Street School, after which she became a writing specialist. Ms. Lens joined the staff at Hawley Environmental School in the year 2000 and since that time has taught fourth grade there. In addition to her classroom work, she is a member of the technology and environmental education committees at Hawley.

As a fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Lens and her students work closely with members of the Urban Ecology Center, planting native prairie plants in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley. The focus extends from plants to birds because Ms. Lens and her fourth-graders also work with the International Crane Society in Baraboo, Wisconsin, following the annual whooping crane migration. As a teacher she has excelled in supplementing classroom lessons with field trips that are in line with the school’s environmental focus. JoAnn Lens has for three years worked on providing descriptive feedback and test analysis as part of a mathematics assessment committee under the Milwaukee Math Partnership.

Hawley Environmental School Principal Glen Stavens states that Ms. Lens makes traditional elementary school learning exciting. Principal Stavens reports that Ms. Lens brings herself into the learning process by her continuous interactions with the boys and girls. Ms. Lens ignites the learning process by creating curiosity in students and by encouraging problem solving, personal responsibility, and respect for self, family, and community.

JoAnn Lens is currently working on a Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction at National Louis University.

Ms. Lens was surprised by the announcement in early September that she had won the Elementary School Teacher of the Year award from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. In posing with the award later, she chose to have her photo taken with her fourth-grade students. “I do it because of them,” she said.

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors recognizes and honors JoAnn for her dedication, outstanding leadership, and commitment to excellence on behalf of the students of the Milwaukee Public Schools.