Warner student named NY's top teacher

Gatto works in small groups with Rochester students.

n the classroom of Rochester fourth-grade teacher Lynn Astarita Gatto, the teacher's desk adjoins those of her 22 students to form a large rectangle in their corner of Henry Hudson Elementary School. It's there, side-by-side with her students for the past 29 years, that Gatto has created a classroom that overflows with noise and excitement and with what many experts say are highly effective teaching techniques.

That's why Gatto, who is pursuing her doctoral degree at the Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, has been selected as New York State's 2004 Teacher of the Year.

"This award validates for me and my colleagues who teach like me that we're on the right track," Gatto says. "In my class, I create a core of learners. Part of what makes me a unique teacher is we are all equal learners, and we are all learning together."

Because Gatto wanted "to put theory behind" what she does, the Rochester teacher enrolled as a doctoral student at the Warner School in 2000. For Gatto, creating a classroom and a teaching philosophy that foster interaction and discussion is at the heart of her mission.

"Talk is the literacy my students bring to the classroom," says Gatto, whose own teachers tried to hush her when she was a very talkative child. "For us to squelch that and not let kids develop doesn't make sense."

In her doctoral work at the Warner School, Gatto is focusing on a specific type of classroom talk. Her dissertation will examine "eruptions of conversation" that happen spontaneously in the classroom. "I'm looking at these simultaneous overlapping conversations (SOC, she calls them) to see how they happen and how they connect to meaning-making," she explains. From her experience, this type of classroom dialogue is an important part of the way children learn.

The New York award that recognizes and celebrates outstanding teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade was announced June 16 in Albany. More than a dozen educational organizations in New York State were involved in the selection process. Gatto also will compete for the national award.

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