News from Trinity University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Susie P. Gonzalez

April 6, 2010

Two San Antonio Educators Awarded Trinity Prize for Excellence in Teaching

SAN ANTONIO – A high school theater arts teacher and a fifth grade bilingual educator have been awarded the 2010 Trinity Prize for Excellence in Teaching for their outstanding performance in public education. Jill Gable, who guides actors at South San Antonio High School in the South San Antonio Independent School District, and Roxanna Montes-Bazaldúa, a leader in bilingual classes at Woodridge Elementary in the Alamo Heights Independent School District, were selected from 19 distinguished educators nominated by area schools for their commitment and passion to education.

Each winner received a crystal apple and a $2,500 check during surprise visits to their classrooms on April 1 by Pat Norman, acting chair and associate professor of education at Trinity. Announcing the award in front of their peers and students has become meaningful to the recipients, enhancing the celebratory nature of the Trinity Prize.

The winners will be honored in an April 16 ceremony on the campus of Trinity University, which sponsors the award along with the H-E-B Grocery Co. and the San Antonio Express-News. The Trinity Prize, instituted in 1982 by the University’s department of education, is the area’s longest-running award to honor and recognize outstanding public school teachers in greater San Antonio and Bexar County and surrounding counties.

Jill Gable

A theater arts teacher for 16 years, Mrs. Gable’s goal is to inspire students to reach their acting potential and to love and appreciate theater, but more importantly, to love and respect themselves. She introduces novice acting students to “theater games” that have no winners or losers but offer a “safe” place to perform. “To me, each student is a valuable individual with worth and dignity,” she says. Mrs. Gable establishes ground rules that foster leadership and respect and eliminate judgment of fellow students. She demonstrated these beliefs when South San’s sister school, West Campus, was rendered unusable by a torrential flood. She blended the two student groups by allowing everyone to audition for High School Musical, featuring the theme song, “We’re All in This Together,” resulting in a successful show that helped heal rifts between the two schools. She holds a bachelor of arts in communication from Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.

Roxanna Montes-Bazaldúa

Mrs. Montes-Bazaldúa is one teacher whose “spirit of discovery” has had an amazing impact on her school. “Her positive attitude and passion for children is contagious,” says her principal. She builds relationships with students and their parents – sometimes on Saturdays – and is committed to helping students who have been in the bilingual program for five years without demonstrating proficiency to exit to “all English” classes. She wrote a grant to create the Sin Fronteras/Without Borders program to tutor students and sponsor trips to cultural and academic events that tie academics to real world experiences. During summers, she works with a national migrant education program at the Region 20 Service Center, where her math lessons are televised. In 2008, she wrote a bilingual children’s book, The Legend of the Cascarón, and is pursuing a doctorate in International Education and Entrepreneurship at the University of the Incarnate Word.

A committee of business leaders and Trinity education students selected the Trinity Prize winners. Committee members were Mari Aguirre, manager of Community Affairs at Rackspace; Margaret Anderson, executive director of P16 Plus Council of Greater Bexar County; Andrew Sherwood, attorney with Cox Smith Matthews Inc.; and Trinity students Rachel Walz, outstanding senior in education who will earn a bachelor’s in May and is a candidate for a master’s in teaching in 2011, and Nicole Heroux, outstanding junior in education, who is a candidate for a bachelor’s in 2011 and a master’s in 2012.

At the April 16 ceremony, the 2009 National Teacher of the Year, Anthony Mullen, will deliver the annual Kappa Delta Pi lecture to celebrate the practice of teaching. Mr. Mullen is a special education teacher at an alternative education branch of a Greenwich, Conn., high school. Before becoming a teacher, he was on New York City police force for 20 years.

For more information, contact Trinity’s department of education at 210-999-7501.

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