Athlos Academies Recognizes 2017 Distinguished Athlos Educators

The Distinguished Athlos Educator award is given annually to three individuals who exemplify quality performance in the Athlos program. This year’s recipients were recognized at a reception on Tuesday, June 27 at Athlos Academies headquarters.

Award winners demonstrate excellence in their classroom, on the turf, or within their community. Each of this year’s three recipients models a commitment to and understanding of the Athlos Pillars of Performance and contributes to the success of staff and students.

Rosa Maria Lozano

Rosa Maria Lozano earned her degree in psychology with a minor is sociology from the University of Texas Brownsville in 2007. After graduation, she worked with Tropical Texas Behavioral Health on the mobile crisis outreach team for eight years. Ms. Lozano became the Performance Character coach at Athlos Leadership Academy Brownsville in 2015, where she has made outstanding accomplishments implementing Performance Character into the school and greater community.

Rosa has been paramount in building the Performance Character program at Athlos Leadership Academy Brownsville. Rosa took the initiative to bring student-led conferences to the school in the 2016-2017 school year, furthering the Athlos Performance Character and Prepared Mind pillars. She created parent huddle events that led to the school being recognized as a Promising Practice school for 2017 by character.org.

Rosa also created a Performance Character sheet that parents now receive with report cards. This sheet encourages parents to read the report card content and answer questions pertaining to the report card. Students were encouraged to take part in this by being rewarded with 10 minutes of unstructured play time when they returned the sheet to their teacher. This process encouraged parent and student ownership of the student’s education.

She also created a Performance Character Caring Teacher award for teachers who go above and beyond in character education throughout the school year, provided skills training to a group of students so they may be school examples of Performance Character, and provided an anti-bullying presentation integrating Performance Character traits for elementary and sixth-grade students.

Her commitment to teaching and modeling Performance Character is why she was chosen to receive this award.

Stephanie Burton

Stephanie Burton spent 10 years as a professional meeting planner with various companies in and around Los Angeles prior to becoming a teacher. While staying at home with her children, Burton began volunteering and substitute teaching in their classrooms, sparking her passion for teaching. Burton then went on to earn her master’s degree in education and her teaching license. Since that time, she has taught in grades four and five and recently finished up her first year with Athlos Academy of Utah teaching the second grade.

Stephanie is consistently striving to better her students and support her colleagues. She has shown great perseverance and grit when dealing with challenges over the past year, and she has always done so with a smile and a joke. She navigates relationships in a professional and caring way. She is always willing to help her co-workers without a question asked. She is the team lead of the second grade and she runs a tight ship that her team admires and follows. She teaches her students the Performance Character traits and demonstrates every one of them herself.

One project that Stephanie took the lead on was “Christmas Around the World.” She organized the entire project for the second grade and made sure teachers were prepared with materials needed to get the unit planned and implemented. She made sure each and every student had a “suitcase,” by providing each teacher enough green file folders so the students could have a suitcase. She constantly strives to assure each student participates in every way, and that is only one quality that makes her an excellent teacher.

Brittney Schoephoerster

Brittney Schoephoerster earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a Spanish minor and her math certificate at the College of Saint Benedict, during which time she worked as a teaching assistant in a kindergarten classroom and studied abroad in Chile where she taught English.

After graduation, Brittney taught in the Mounds View School District for five years teaching 5th grade, 4th grade, and Spanish.  She also served on the PBIS and school’s leadership team. Brittney has also gone on to earn her Spanish endorsement from St. Mary’s University and masters of education with a K-12 literacy endorsement from the College of St. Scholastica.

At Athlos Academy of St. Cloud, Brittney has proven to be a valuable support to the teachers, leadership team, families, and students. As an instructional coach, she offers help with planning lessons, modeling effective instructional practices, and providing feedback to teachers.

Brittney has shown tremendous leadership by taking the time to model her high-quality teaching skills to first-year teachers. She is constantly researching materials and programs to move the school forward. She ensures that her team of teachers has the resources they need to support them in the classroom. Brittney has differentiated her instructional support based on teacher needs and requests for classroom support.

There is no doubt that Brittney motivates the entire staff with her positive attitude and leadership. She is collaborative, willing to ask critical questions, and ready to accept challenges, always with a positive attitude and smile. Brittney models professional integrity for all who work with her and is very deserving of this recognition.

Congratulations to this year’s Distinguished Athlos Educators!