CAPE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HONORS 1995 EDUCATORS OF YEAR

Judy Holshouser, a counselor for guidance and placement at the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School, talked with high school junior Garrick Dockery about his resume showing his interest in electronics.

Paul Albertin, left, seventh-grade teacher at Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau, discussed some of the day's activities with Robert Hartmann, school principal, who has been selected as administrator of the year by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

"The envelope, please," is the usual comment for award shows just before the announcement of the winners.

Darla Snider, Judy Holshouser and Robert Hartmann were recently named the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's 1995 Educators of the Year.

They will be honored during a May 4 dinner at the Holiday Inn. Along with recognition by their associates, the chamber and the community, the educators will each receive a $250 cash award.

Snider won as the outstanding elementary teacher, Holshouser was selected from the vocational-technical school and Hartmann was picked as the top school administrator.

Together they have accumulated 85 years of teaching experience. They each cited extensive involvement in community and professional activities in their applications.

Snider, a 20-year teacher, has been in a third-grade classroom at Washington Elementary School for the last 16 years. She thinks students need a good foundation in reading, writing and mathematical skills upon which to build their education.

Holshouser has 24 years of teaching experience, the last nine as a counselor for guidance and placement, working with juniors, seniors and adults at the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School.

Hartmann began his teaching career in 1954 at Zion Lutheran School in Alva, Okla., where he taught all grades over eight years and served as principal for five. He then taught seventh and eighth grades and served as principal for another eight years at the Trinity Lutheran School in Alma, Mo.

For the last 25 years, he's been the principal of the Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau. He's accumulated 38 years of administrative experience in his 41-year career.

"From the time I was a small girl, I felt like I wanted to be in a profession of helping others to improve their lives," Snider said in her application. "I have always loved learning and reading so perhaps teaching was my way of staying close to those interests."

Snider considers her guidance of student teachers in her classroom as one of her greatest contributions to excellence in her profession. She works to build a rapport in her own students, especially those with limited abilities and encourages them to participate in classroom work. She was part of the 1986 effort to bring to Washington Elementary the "Reading Is Fundamental" program, which distributes paperbacks to students three times a year.

Holshouser said her love of school and education was instilled by her teachers. Naming several memorable teachers, Holshouser said each "praised abundantly, yet directed appropriately."

The teachers "gave me the challenges needed to broaden my horizons and to appreciate all the factors of setting goals and diligently working toward those goals," Holshouser said. "They taught the `love of learning' and `to share that love with all others.'"

Holshouser entered the counseling area to teach and assist students with learning disabilities, which improved her communication skills. She thinks her greatest contribution to education has been the care, concern and enthusiasm she shows for all students while remembering each one has personal worth and the right to set their own goals. Watching students meet their goals has been one of her greatest rewards.

Hartmann was surrounded with the concepts of education from the beginning as his father was an elementary teacher and principal in a small Lutheran school. After thinking about being a mechanic, he decided to become a teacher at age 10 and attended the same high school and college as his father.

Learning and understanding new concepts didn't always come easy to Hartmann, who developed a sympathetic feeling for those who required effort to learn and challenged himself to be the best teacher he could.

"From this challenge has come some of my greatest contributions and accomplishments -- that of opening up to students the joy and thrill of learning something complex by breaking the concepts down into small understandable principles," Hartmann said in his application.

"Perhaps, after all, I did become a mechanic, taking apart the bolts and nuts of knowledge, its concepts and principles and then reassembling the pieces into meaningful experiences for myself and others," he said.

The chamber's award program for educators, begun last year, is designed to foster a better relationship between business and education. Providing the cash awards this year are KBSI Fox TV, KFVS-TV and Kohlfeld Distributing.

Reservations for the May 4 dinner are available during regular business hours at the chamber office, 601 N. Kingshighway, or by calling 335-3312.