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Dolores Gonzales Elementary School teacher Theresa Sandoval brings her kindergarten students back to the classroom after a recess. Sandoval has received several honors in recent weeks, including being named the New Mexico Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year and earning the Golden Apple Award. (Richard Pipes/Journal)
Dolores Gonzales Elementary School kindergarten teacher Theresa Sandoval must be doing something right, as she recently earned two prominent honors.
Within the past three weeks, Sandoval was named the New Mexico Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year and also was one of seven New Mexico elementary teachers to earn the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching.
“I was honored,” Sandoval said of the recognition. “Everything I do is all for my kids. I want them to come to school every day. Kindergarten is the foundation of coming to school and enjoying it. I want to do the best I can for them. I want them to enjoy school and accept school and succeed in life.”
She received the agriculture award from the New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau for her work in teaching the importance in agriculture, said Denise Williams, who directs the bureau’s Agriculture in the Classroom program.
Holding a basket, Theresa Sandoval teaches the students in her classroom. Sandoval has agriculture-related events each Friday. “I want students to see the big picture of where our food comes from,” she said.
Sandoval “makes each day an incredible educational journey that her students won’t soon forget,” Williams said. “She definitely has that magic touch. Luckily for the members of New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau and the agriculture community, this amazing teacher is also one of your biggest fans.”
Sandoval met Williams at the New Mexico State Fair in 2011 and the teacher learned quite a bit from that experience.
Williams helped Sandoval and four other teachers create an Agricultural Day at the school in April. Students in all grades were able to participate.
Parents with animals took part by bringing goats and sheep, and a teacher with an in-law who has horses brought one to the Barelas-area school.
New Mexico Game and Fish provided information about protecting and conserving wildlife and Southwest Dairies donated coloring books for the students.
It went so well, “I decided it was going to be a tradition,” Sandoval said.
But that was just the start for her, as this school year Sandoval has specific agriculture-related events each Friday.
“I want students to see the big picture of where our food comes from,” she said. “I asked them where it comes from and they said, ‘the store.’ I explained about the soil and the sun and water and ranchers and farmers.”
It was that dedication to an all-important topic that led to Sandoval’s recognition, Williams said.
“Sandoval does an exceptional job of helping students see agriculture beyond the grocery store shelves,” she said. “Her students know that farmers and ranchers are important, and that is why we are celebrating her.”
As the world population continues to balloon, “it’s going to be very important to get more students into agriculture,” Williams said. “We have to supply that demand.”
Sandoval earned an all-expenses-paid trip to Minneapolis, Minn., next summer for a four-day conference where she has a chance to be the National Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year.
Dolores Gonzales Elementary School teacher Theresa Sandoval with her kindergarten students. “I was honored,” Sandoval said about the recent recognition of her work. “Everything I do is all for my kids. I want them to come to school every day. Kindergarten is the foundation of coming to school and enjoying it.”
In addition, she’ll get to network with other teachers and professionals to come up with new ideas to further the cause.
“I couldn’t have been able to do this without my principal’s support,” Sandoval said, referring to Lori Stuit. “She has really supported me.”
Sandoval’s overall performance in the classroom also resulted in a Golden Apple Award, selected from 144 applicants.
Nominated by parents of a student she had last school year, Sandoval said she had to fill out an extremely extensive application, then was visited for a full day in the classroom by award representatives.
Those representatives also interviewed her, students, other teachers and Stuit. They checked students’ work and examined lesson plans.
When it was over, Sandoval was one of seven teachers in the state selected for the honor from the Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico.
“I really believe in community involvement and parent involvement,” she said in explaining her success. “The community has so much to offer and they’re willing to do it, if you ask.”
Sandoval, who has been teaching for 12 years at Dolores Gonzales, tries to take her students on as many field trips as possible to get hands-on learning. So she has become an expert at finding grant money to pay for the trips.
As part of the award, Sandoval earned $1,500 as a personal stipend “but that’s probably going to field trips to pay for bus trips,” she said. “We always do some type of activity connected with the trip.”
Sandoval also earned $4,000 for personal development and a laptop computer.
