[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 125 (Thursday, September 23, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1948]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       IN CELEBRATION OF LORRIE NELSON'S DEDICATION TO EDUCATION

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                          HON. ELTON GALLEGLY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 23, 1999

  Mr. GALLEGLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the energy and 
dedication that Lorraine ``Lorrie'' Nelson, a fifth-grade teacher in my 
district, brings to her classroom and her profession. The Poinsettia 
Elementary School educator was honored this week as Ventura County's 
Teacher of the Year.
  Mrs. Nelson was raised to be a teacher, although she didn't realize 
it until she was engrossed in law school. Her parents encouraged the 
young Lorrie and her brother to engage in family discussions, to ask 
questions and expect answers. She learned to listen from her parents' 
example. Now, after some 10 years of encouraging other young minds to 
learn. Mrs. Nelson couldn't see herself doing anything else.
  Children in the Ventura Unified School District who have experienced 
her lesson plans calls her ``funny'' and even ``crazy.'' But it's fun 
with a purpose. Mrs. Nelson encourages her students to set high 
standards and helps them achieve them. She believes teachers should be 
skillful in the topics they teach our children, a subject I have 
strongly supported legislatively for several years.
  To achieve her goal, Mrs. Nelson directed the Ventura Unified Writing 
Project from 1993 to 1997. The Writing Project is a mentoring program 
for teachers who write extensively, demonstrate instructional 
techniques and examine research in the teaching of writing.
  This past summer, Mrs. Nelson taught a two-week course titled 
``Integrating Standards with Inspirational Teaching.'' She has been a 
presenter for the South Coast Writing Project Summer Institutes for the 
Ventura Unified School District and Santa Barbara School Districts, in 
such topics as Writing Workshop, Writing Response and Reading 
Comprehension. In the fall, she will work the Shoah Foundation to 
develop a curriculum for oral histories of Holocaust survivors.
  She is, of course, a published writer.
  But her real accomplishments are in inspiring her students. One way 
she has done that is by pairing her students with some influential 
adults--their parents--in a writing program suitably titled ``Family of 
Writers.''
  Not surprisingly, Mrs. Nelson has garnered numerous honors, starting 
with her first year of teaching, when she was recognized as the Ventura 
Unified School District Sallie Mae First Year Teacher of the Year.
  Mr. Speaker, Ventura County has rightly honored Mrs. Nelson as the 
model other educators should strive to be. She holds her students 
accountable in a fun, productive learning environment. She holds 
herself and her peers accountable by stressing the skills teachers need 
to be effective educators.
  Next month, Mrs. Nelson will compete for California Teacher of the 
Year. Win or lose, education will always be victorious in her 
classroom.
  Mrs. Speaker, I'd like to close with Mrs. Nelson's own thoughts, her 
closing words in her Professional Biography. After hearing these words, 
I know my colleagues will join me in congratulating her for her award 
and thank her for dedicating herself to our children.
  ``Even though students leave my classroom with beautifully bound 
poetry anthologies, framed self-portraits, and cherished pet beetles, 
my greatest contribution as a teacher is invisible. Students leave with 
an understanding that their opinions are important. They know that life 
is a process of learning, questioning and revising. They become 
lifelong learners.`
  We couldn't ask for anything more.

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