Follow NWPE on:

Subscribe to RSS Feed:

Patricia Donovan-Hopkins Awarded Scholarship
posted by: Cindy Omlin | January 16, 2018, 06:53 PM   

Congratulations to Patricia Donovan-Hopkins, 4th grade teacher at Columbia Valley Gardens Elementary School in Kalama, WA, Longview School District.  She was awarded a $500 scholarship by Brenda Miller, NWPE Regional Director and Lori Porter, NWPE Board Member, at a staff meeting on January 10, 2018.  She will use the scholarship to attend the "Learning and the Brain" conference in New York City, April 19-21, 2018.  The focus of the conference is "The Science of Stress."

patricia donovan hopkins snip for webConcerned about the stresses her students experience inside and outside the classroom and their effects on student learning, Ms. Donovan-Hopkins hopes this conference will help her better understand how to help facilitate learning for students facing those challenges, such as poverty, homelessness, and drug involvement. She notes that she and her students will learn "The impact of anxiety, emotions, and behavior on the brain and achievement; how to manage behavior problems in students; strategies to reduce social, test and performance anxiety; how teachers can do more with less time and overcome burnout and the feeling of being overwhelmed, and the benefits of mindfulness for students and teachers."

Sharing successes and bringing back what they learn at professional development offerings to their classrooms and schools is important according to Ms. Donovan-Hopkins. “We need to communicate what we're learning and doing with community members, PTA members and parents to raise the professionalism of teaching as a career and to enhance the level of respect for our profession.”

Ms. Donovan-Hopkins is a member of Northwest Professional Educators in a current compulsory union fee state. She joined NWPE due to frustration with her local and state unions. “I come from a career in the private industry and am not used to being inundated with e-mails telling me whom I should vote for, when and what I should protest, etc. I think I deserve more respect as a professional and have truly enjoyed the opportunities presented by NWPE which have benefited my teaching career. I believe the focus of NWPE is more in line with my personal beliefs and values and more directly benefits students and teachers than teacher unions.”

NWPE is proud to be Ms. Donovan-Hopkins association of choice.  We hope her conference enables her to better unleash her students’ learning potential!

Comments (0)Add Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.

busy