Ellen Kolonoski named ‘Teacher of the Year' at Kittatinny High

Newton - Ellen Kolonoski has been selected as “Teacher of the Year” at Kittatinny Regional High School in Newton. She currently teaches seventh-grade world cultures and is a member of the Pathfinder team. Kolonoski has been teaching at Kittatinny for 12 years and has continuously developed programs that have benefited her students and the entire middle school program. In announcing her selection, school officials said Kolonoski has demonstrated “superior professional skills, she communicates well with her students, and she is a valued, collegial member of the staff. She presents a well-managed and on-task classroom that leads to positive interaction between herself and her students.” They noted that “in the pursuit of teaching excellence,” Kolonoski has attended numerous workshops and seminars and she has developed activities garnered in these workshops into practical lessons that have benefited her students and the entire seventh grade. She attended the National Geographic Summer Institute and from this, she continues to be a leading authority in geography education. She organizes the school level for the National Geography Bees and remains a consultant for the National Geographic Society. In her ongoing efforts to promote geography education, Kolonoski has presented lessons at the N.J. Geography conference and presented her “Good Ideas” at a Kittatinny In-Service program. She has been recognized at the state level as a member of the N.J. Dept. of Education Core Curriculum Content Standards and GEPA committees, which developed the current standards for social studies education in the state. Kolonoski has taken the knowledge gained from the national and state level and has been a leader in molding the local curriculum through her leadership of the K-8 Curriculum Alignment Committee. She has also been an important voice in the ongoing revisions of the seventh grade social studies curriculum. Her efforts also transcend the classroom, as evidenced by her ongoing work to create and maintain “Operation Cougar Pride” which has become a major undertaking of seventh- and eighth-grade students. “Operation Cougar Pride has touched the lives of more than 30 graduates of Kittatinny serving in the United States military around the globe,” school officials said. The project has helped Kolonoski connect her students to current events and world geography, and it has also become an important service learning project. “For years Mrs. Kolonoski has demonstrated the qualities that have led to this honor,” they concluded. “She continues to look for new projects and grants that can further develop the love of learning in her students.”