District 41 names its Educator of the Year

What do you do with a Barbie doll and a bungee chord?

If you're Wayne Wittenberg, you obviously let Barbie do some sky-diving out a second-floor window of Ben Franklin Elementary School in Glen Ellyn.

This was an experiment, one of many examples of the science teacher's knack for engaging students and making the grown-ups in the school wish they could revisit the fourth grade, co-workers say. The science part? Using precise measurements, kids had to guess how close Barbie could get to the ground without touching it.

"He has such awesome ideas that we use," fellow teacher Randy Jones says. "The kids are just amazed by it."

Wittenberg was recognized this week by the village's chamber of commerce as the Educator of the Year in Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 after he was nominated by Jones and fellow teacher Susie Thomas.

"Wayne has been the go-to-guy when it comes to science-making kits, putting together lessons and spending many hours after school sharing his expertise in this area for teachers to learn, never asking for anything," they wrote in their nomination.

After more than three decades teaching, Wittenberg is retiring at the end of the school year. But he doesn't dwell on his last day.

"I think it's just time for a younger person to come in and to make way for that next generation of teachers, which is, from what I've seen, highly trained, very successful," Wittenberg said. "They're extremely knowledgeable about technology and they're very savvy."

But that's exactly how peers describe Wittenberg, who doesn't stop collaborating with teachers when the school year ends.

"He's just a consummate educator, and in it for all the right reasons," Ben Franklin Principal Kirk Samples said. "And he's never stopped working to be at the top of his field."

Wittenberg started teaching 35 years ago, and even then he seemed ahead of his time. After graduating from Elmhurst College, he began his career in a Bensenville school, drawing the ire of a veteran teacher when he arranged students in groups to do "cooperative learning."

"I just remember she was so flabbergasted that I was actually putting tables together and having kids talk and work and work collaboratively," Wittenberg said. "And she was just from that era of, you have desks lined up straight in a row and nobody talks to anybody else and everybody faces the teacher."

Fast forward 35 years and his classroom still has students working in teams, helping each other troubleshoot technology and giving constructive criticism.

"Setting the right tone and having kids work together as a community is critical," Wittenberg said. "It's not individual. It's not everybody isolated."

His STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) class recently prepared for a presentation in front of village environmental commissioners and Glen Ellyn Park District officials on reducing energy consumption.

Madison Storm volunteered to show her findings so far, taking suggestions from classmates who never talked over each other and always raised their hands.

The group is so respectful that one student - unprompted - closed the door at the sound of music from another room.

"I think he makes us feel safe," Madison says of Wittenberg. "He knows if we're having trouble, then he call us up to the table and he works with us until we get it right."

These are skills students eventually will need in the workplace, Wittenberg says, but he doesn't lose sight of the fact that's he teaching 9- and 10-year-olds.

In his classroom is a constant reminder that "there's so much more to these kids than math or science or reading and writing, that they have other lives."

It's a wall of photos showing them on vacation, with their families and their pets, an idea by the principal that helps connect student and teacher.

"Sometimes when I'm stressed about something that we have to do and where the kids are and where they're supposed to be, I just look at those pictures. You just always have to remember they're kids," Wittenberg said.

"We're asking a lot of them, not like when we were in school and not like when their parents were in school. They're actually doing a lot more and having to focus a lot more."

With that in mind, he and Jones help students refocus through "brain breaks." It's a chance for kids to be themselves and interact with their friends on the playground, Wittenberg says.

"They are organizing their own games," he said. "They are organizing their own social matrix. A parent, an adult, a coach is not organizing it for them. I just walk around and I'm amazed at what they're doing and the games their inventing."

The rules are clear: Brain breaks last nine minutes and then kids "get right down to work." If they improve their test scores, then students get a longer brain break.

"Kids really respond to that," he said. "They see a goal and they want to earn it."

Wittenberg gives that kind of advice training teachers and college students through the Golden Apple Foundation. He'll continue contributing to that program - and to teacher workshops at Fermilab - after he steps down from Ben Franklin, where he's spent most of his career.

In fact, shortly after school's out for summer, Wittenberg plans to travel to California to help a school district incorporate STEM into the classroom.

"I expect that we will see more of Mr. Wittenberg just because that's who he is," said Samples, the principal. "He wants to give to his profession."