St. Anne's teacher earns Fellowship Scholarship

• PHOTO: Roxy Neumann

St. Anne Catholic School teacher Roxy Neumann earned a 2012 Herb Kohl Fellowship Scholarship.

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St. Anne Catholic School teacher Roxy Neumann has all the qualities necessary to become a 2012 Herb Kohl Foundation Fellowship Scholarship recipient.

According to a press release from the Herb Kohl Education Foundation, Inc., “Fellowship recipients are chosen for their superior ability to inspire a love of learning in their students, their ability to motivate others, and for their leadership and service within and outside the classroom.”

Last fall St. Anne’s Principal Randall Stanke nominated Neumann for the award.

“I nominated Mrs. Neumann as she is an excellent and dedicated middle school math teacher,” Stanke said. “Our students appreciate and respect her and they do very well in math as indicated both by the results of the ITBS test (a nationally norm-referenced test) our students take in grades three, five and seven each year, and by placement in high school math classes as ninth graders.”

Neumann said she was surprised and flattered to be nominated for the award.

Last week she received a letter in the mail saying she was one of 100 teachers in the state who earned a $1,000 grant for their school.

Neumann received her undergraduate degree in elementary and middle school education at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and she’s been teaching at St. Anne’s for eight years. She’s taught math, religion and computer applications.

She’s been involved with the Diocese committee on math curriculum standards for the last two years, has been on various committees in the school, including the math curriculum committee, and she also helped create the school’s technology standards.

Neumann said she really enjoys working with her students at St. Anne’s.

“I have such amazing kids here and they work really hard for me. I think that’s what makes me love my job so much,” she said. “I really enjoy teaching math and pushing kids as far as I possibly can.”

She said one of her teaching accomplishments at St. Anne’s is that many of her eighth-graders complete algebra one with her instead of at the high school and are placed into algebra two as freshmen.

“I have seventh- and eighth-graders that are working on algebra one here. That’s really amazing. They put a lot of hard work into mastering material that is beyond their years,” Neumann said.

Neumann said each year she makes it her goal to “take each individual student as far as I possibly can in a year’s time.”

She says she wants her students to grow academically and personally.

“And I want them to feel confident and comfortable along the way,” she said. “A lot of students struggle with math or they feel like they’re not good at it, so I try to instill some of that confidence in them.”

She also aims to teach her students life skills, like how to study, how to use computer applications and writing resources, and how to contribute to the community.

“I think as a whole, St. Anne’s trys to produce well-rounded students. We’re not just looking at the academic part of it. We’re also looking at their faith and what kind of person they are,” Neumann said.

Neumann winning the Fellowship Scholarship is a huge asset to her classroom and the school.

The $1,000 will be directed to the school’s curriculum fund to be used for math and technology.

Neumann said she’d like to purchase graphing calculators and some handheld SMART Response interactive devices that would work with the classroom SMART Board.

The grant money will be awarded in June and will be put to use for the following school year.

Neumann said it’s nice to see the hard work of the teachers and students at St. Anne’s recognized. She said her winning the award was a team effort.

“It wouldn’t have been possible for me to win this award if I didn’t have such amazing students and parents that are really supportive and working with us all the time. I’m also constantly inspired by the other teachers that I work with,” she said. “I think the most important thing that we do here is, because we have such small class sizes, we give our students so much individual attention. I think without all of those things it wouldn’t have been possible for me to win this.”

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