Agoura Hills woman named Teacher of the Year in Los Angeles
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

STEPHANIE BERTHOLDO Acorn Newspapers EXCELLENT EDUCATOR- Patrice Bouffard of Agoura Hills, a first-grade teacher with a large percentage of English language learners at Encino Elementary School, is Teacher of the Year for a section of Los Angeles Unified School District.

Agoura Hills resident Patrice Bouffard, was named "2007 Teacher of the Year" for a section of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The Encino Chamber of Commerce honored Bouffard at a ceremony on May 18 at the Hilton in Woodland Hills. She was chosen out of 11 nominees at public and private schools in Encino, Sherman Oaks and Tarzana.

"I was very surprised," Bouffard said. "Since a teacher from Encino won the year before I didn't think I had a chance."

Bouffard has been teaching at Encino Elementary School for 19 years. She launched her career with the school as a bilingual teacher in 1987.

Although bilingual education was terminated in California schools many years ago in favor of total immersion in the English language, Bouffard's first-grade class has remained diverse since the start.

"I've always had English language development students," she said.

In her early years as a teacher, Bouffard had mostly Spanishspeaking children needing help learning English, but one-third of her class is comprised of children from all over the world- Russia, China, Japan, Mexico, the Middle East and other countries.

Although Bouffard taught second grade previously, she prefers teaching first grade. She said she enjoys teaching youngsters how to read and write in first grade. "It's one of the most formative years in education," she said.

Teaching children English in first grade is challenging, but Bouffard makes it seem easy. Since she already uses "realia," or real life examples and pictures to teach children words and meanings, all of the children learn vocabulary words at the same time regardless of their primary language. "That's first grade," she said.

"Patrice Bouffard's exemplary work with English language learners is substantiated at the close of each year with ELL students are on a par with their English-only classmates," said Bette Kaplan, principal of Encino Elementary. "Her resourcerich classroom provides students with abundant learning opportunities."

Nationally board certified, Bouffard writes grants for the school and secured 25 computers for the school, Kaplan told guests at the luncheon. She also won the Richard Riordan Recreational Reading Grant and helped with the school's Arts Prototype grant.

Bouffard was also recognized for developing a partnership with Gelson's Market through their Adopt-a-School program and has served on nearly every committee the school has formed.

Numerous commendations were bestowed upon Bouffard at the celebration. She received letters from local dignitaries, Los Angeles Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (DCalif.), U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others.

As a thank-you for her hard work and dedication, Bouffard was presented with an official U.S. flag, gift certificates and a $200 check to launch an attendance incentive program.

The school-wide incentive plan will be multifaceted, Bouffard said. If attendance is boosted just a couple of percentage points, the school would retain more average daily attendance money, she said. More important than money is the instructional time the child misses when he or she is absent from school, she said.

Bouffard would also like to form an incentive plan for parents to motivate them to get their children to school on time.

"Tardies are a problem," Bouffard said. Some children have been known to be 20 to 30 minutes late nearly every day.

"Being honored distinguishes you as one of the very best educators we have in our classroom today," Feinstein said in a letter to Bouffard. "You have truly enriched the lives of countless children through your admirable work."