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A Longview Elementary teacher from Taylorsville has been awarded one of six outstanding educator awards for the PTA’s 2007 Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Education. The Utah PTA Golden Apple Awards 2007 premieres on KUED-Channel 7 Thursday, May 31, at 9 p.m. This special program features the awards ceremony, in combination with on-site footage shot at Longview Elementary.

The PTA honored Cindy Durante, selected from numerous teacher nominees from nearly every school in Utah. Durante’s nominators, Richard Forsyth, principal, and Bridget Stowell, PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association) president, describe her as a wonderful advocate and supporter of the PTSA. “Whenever there is a PTA activity at night, Mrs. Durante doesn’t give her students homework, but tells them their ‘homework’ is to attend the activity and she attends, as well,” said Stowell.

Durante is one of those teachers who make learning memorable for her students, explains her principal. “She will do things as simple as hanging up a can of Tab from the ceiling to remind her students to indent their paragraphs,” he added.

Her students say she teaches things “in a funny way” to help them remember the lesson. They see her as a “fair, kind and funny teacher who makes every student feel special” and they think it’s great that she attends her students’ after-school activities.

Durante communicates with the parents of her students on a regular basis and updates a Web site regularly that parents can log into, using their own passwords, to get current information about their children’s progress. She also utilizes weekly homework sheets given to parents. The sheets track each student’s progress daily.

Stowell said Durante loves to get her students involved in the community and encourages community interaction in her classroom, adding that a current project involves having students and community members gather backpacks, school supplies and collect money to help children from Afghanistan.

The Golden Apple Awards are funded in part by NuSkin Enterprises,Utah Education Network, Educators Mutual Insurance Assoc., Utah Education Assoc., and the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation.

The Utah PTA Golden Apple Awards 2007 premieres on KUED-Channel 7 Thursday, May 31, at 9 p.m., repeating Sunday, June 3, at 3 p.m.

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