Merrill’s Clemencia Spizzirri: Iowa Teacher of the Year
Big doings Friday at Merrill Middle School where Clemencia Spizzirri was officially named the 2015 Iowa Teacher of the Year by Governor Terry Branstad during an assembly in the school gym. She becomes the 9th DMPS teacher to receive the award that was established in 1958 by the Iowa Department of Education.
Besides Governor Branstad dignitaries present for the announcement included DE Director Dr. Brad Buck and DMPS Superintendent Dr. Tom Ahart. But the loudest and longest ovation was reserved for the guest of honor whose selection brought the Merrill student body to its feet.
Spizzirri is a Spanish teacher. But really, she teaches lots of things to lots of folks and does it from a global perspective.
“On my classroom wall, I have a poster with the face of one of the greatest minds of all time, Albert Einstein. The caption reads ‘A bundle of belongings is not the only thing [an immigrant] brings to his new country.’ As an immigrant I am experiencing firsthand what the caption really means,” Spizzirri said during her acceptance speech. “There is a saying in Spanish I like very much: ‘Amor por la patria se muestra en la medida en la cual uno valora la educación de la niñez,’ (‘Love for your country is shown in the extent that you care about children’s education’).
Spizzirri cares a great deal, wherever she and the children happen to be.
A native of Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, Spizzirri began her career there before coming to the United States.
One visit to her classroom is all it takes to understand why she was recognized. Poring through the 15 pages of nominating documents just confirms the gut hunch you get watching her in action. You don’t have to be a trained educator to know how tough it can be to convince even one 6th-8th grader of anything, let alone teach them a foreign language, raise their geo-cultural consciousness and deepen their critical thinking simultaneously in groups of 20+ at a time. On a daily basis. In a way they enjoy. But that’s what Spizzirri does, among other things.
Her teaching background in Ecuador consisted of nine years in the International Baccalaureate curriculum so she fit right in at Merrill; one of the district’s designated IB schools, where she’s in her sixth year. But she also fit right in at Lutheran Social Services where she taught English to refugees from around the globe while she was in grad school at Drake University. And she probably also fit right in when she was teaching English to the national police back in Ecuador.
Besides her classroom duties at Merrill Spizzirri spearheads the Language Acquisition Department there and modified the curriculum from one where students were grouped arbitrarily by grade level to a system where students are placed in foreign language classes according to proficiency. There might be all three grade levels represented in the same class period. She also advocates for the identification of ELL students as gifted and talented and the inclusion of them in that program. She works with students’ whole families outside of school, particularly as a leader in the local Latino community.
But she is most at home feeding a classroom full of eager, energetic kids, always on the move, working the room like the hostess of a talk/game show.
Hands shoot up, frequently, lots of them. High and straight, like they’re climbing or reaching for something. Pencils go to wiggling on desktops as soon as they’re given a task. The period is fast-paced and briskly runs its course in what feels like just a moment, the way it always goes when you’re having fun. There is singing, everything from Spanish rap beats to a memorization exercise set to the tune of the old Flintstones theme melody. Students work on how to write their birthdates and tell time and count en Espanol using ancient Mayan symbols, but they also talk about literally timeless cultures like the Piraha tribe in the Amazonian rainforest. Every day they grapple with some questions that are matters of fact and others that are debatable. There is even some physical exercise when everybody stands to do the Macarena together. Why?
“To keep both our bodies and our minds happy,” one student answers.
“Si, es muy importante,” Spizzirri nods, smiling.
She insists repeatedly that life is an adventure and that learning should be an exciting, enjoyable part of it.
Her reactions to students’ work as she wanders desk-to-desk are peppered with words like “bravo,” and “perfecto.”
Alex springs to his feet right on cue to recite the numbers from 1-60 followed immediately by Livvie who then counts down from 60-1, rapido.
A lot of people had a lot to say about Spizzirri in boosting her candidacy for the prestigious TOY award. But a couple of things stood out.
Diane Kehm, a Vice Principal at Merrill and one of Spizzirri’s nominators, said, “Clemencia practices what she teaches,” by “continually learning and challenging herself as an educator…”
And Abdirahman Omar, a Somali refugee who was dealing with culture shock while trying to learn English and Spanish simultaneously when he and his brother first landed in the Des Moines schools commented, “I don’t know if she knows it but she is the best teacher I could have asked for…”
But no one and nothing sums her up better than the engraving on the frame of a personal photograph that she keeps on a shelf behind her desk at school:
“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is…teaching, let him teach…” (Romans 12:6/7)
She’ll have to scooch that frame over a little bit now to make room for another keepsake.
