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Pomerantz named Teacher of the Year

| May 3, 2018 1:00 AM

Kirsten Pomerantz, English teacher at Lake City High School, was named the Coeur d’Alene Public Schools Teacher of the Year on Tuesday night at the district’s annual education retirement and recognition dinner.

Pomerantz has taught for 10 years and has been at Lake City since 2013. She teaches Basic English 9, AP Literature and Composition, and Seminar for Success, a new elective class that provides academic and behavioral support for students who have struggled with grades, attendance or behavior. The focus of the seminar class is giving students time to get work completed and to study for exams through better organization and self-management skills.

Speaking about her teaching philosophy, Pomerantz said, “I firmly believe that students need strong fundamental skills, but that they need to buy-in, which demands a focus on relationship and context.”

She explained that she embeds four skills into nearly everything she does: critical thinking and problem solving; communication; collaboration; and creativity and innovation.

“Sometimes I have students practice these skills, and sometimes I want to build their awareness of the applications of those skills in the past and present so that they can see they are a vital part of this great human experiment,” she said.

Pomerantz does “incredible work with our really struggling, disenfranchised kids,” Lake City High School Principal Deanne Clifford said. “She offers so much to our students. There is nothing that this woman won’t do.”

For the past three years Pomerantz has been in charge of Lake City’s program to teach appropriate student behaviors to improve the overall school climate. One aspect of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Program is acknowledging positive behavior on a monthly basis with postcards delivered to students by hand or mailed home. The school has acknowledged 59 percent of its students over the past three semesters.

Pomerantz said her message to others in her profession is to focus carefully on how to communicate their support for fragile adolescents. “Smile and tell them that you are on their side,” she said. “Don’t lower the bar, but be their coach — help them get to that bar through drills and rehearsals that they know are for them, and celebrate with them every bit of success.”

Pomerantz is also co-chair of the school’s English department, a mentor-teacher to an Eastern Washington University education student, a state delegate for the Idaho Education Association and the Anime Club adviser.

She has a Masters of Education from University of Idaho; earned her teaching certification from California State University; and she has a Bachelor of Arts degree in cultural anthropology from University of California-Santa Cruz. Her Idaho teaching credentials include endorsements in English, mathematics, earth science, special education and anthropology.

Pomerantz will represent the district in the Idaho Teacher of the Year selection in the fall. She follows Shelby Randklev, the 2017 Teacher of the Year and a Title 1 Reading Teacher and Reading Specialist at Fernan STEM Academy

Other finalists for the Teacher of the Year award were Sumer Comfort, Elementary Educator of the Year (Ramsey Magnet School of Science, first grade) and Jennifer Nelson, Middle School Educator of the Year (Lakes Magnet Middle School, seventh grade English/eighth grade study skills).

Sydney Smyly, who teaches sixth grade language arts, social studies and academic enrichment at Lakes Magnet Middle School, was named Rookie Educator of the Year.

Jake Nelke, a building technician in the district technology department, was recognized as the Classified Employee of the Year at the event.

The dinner also honored 18 classified and 13 certified employees who are retiring at the end of this school year.

The CEA presented its Friend of Education Award to the EXCEL Foundation, which has contributed more than $1.5 million in classroom grants to teachers in the school district. Katie Morrisroe, a member of the EXCEL Board of Directors, accepted the award.