Keokuk teacher puts her stamp on the classroom
Published: May 20, 2006
When it comes to excellence in teaching, Diane Berner delivers.
Berner, a first-grade teacher at Hawthorne Elementary School in Keokuk, started the school post office as part of the U.S. Postal Service’s “Wee Deliver” program. She also has put her stamp on many other school projects, which is why students, parents and staff members nominated her for a 2006 Golden Apple Award.
The Hawthorne Post Office is in its first year of operation. First-graders Kaci Ames and Peyton Skender help sort, cancel and deliver mail first thing every morning. Students can write letters and have them delivered throughout the building, and employees are interviewed and hired.
Berner, a Keokuk native, started one of the first “Wee Deliver” school post offices in the country when teaching in Long Beach, Calif., and she also started one at George Washington Elementary in Keokuk. She helped the Parent Teacher Organization build a new playground for first- and second-graders, and she works with the Garden Committee to help Hawthorne’s garden and pond area.
First-grader Reade Reiter says the class does a lot of fun things, such as “plant flowers and make models of the earth.”
Other students like Berner’s spontaneity.
“She lets us do some things sometimes she doesn’t even plan,” says classmate Allison Herr.
“I don’t ever want to have a day where I’m not having fun,” says Berner, who is in her ninth year of teaching. “I really try to work with each student on their level, where they are.”
Amy Muston’s son, Connor, is one of Berner’s students. She says Connor started the school year with significant delays because of leukemia treatments for the last 3 1/2 years, but she believes her son has progressed quickly because of Berner’s “amazing attention, patience and belief” in children.
“Mrs. Berner will be one of the teachers Connor will, as an adult, look back and remember as the one who helped him succeed in his math facts, helped him learn to read all by himself and helped him realize he can try new things without fear of failure,” Muston wrote in her nomination letter.
When she received her Golden Apple and a stack of nomination letters, Berner said the letters really mean the most to her.
“We like flowers and candy, but we really like the letters,” she said. “For some of these kids, school is the best part of their day, and we need to make sure we make it’s a wonderful, happy place for them.”
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