By staff writer Waverley Achacoso

For this month’s Teacher in the Spotlight, we have selected Michele Kuttner!

Mrs. Kuttner is a second-grade teacher at Bay Farm School who works a lot to help all students and staff recycle responsibly.

Mrs. Kuttner grew up in the 1960’s and the 1970’s, when, in her opinion, life was less supervised by parents. Kids played sports, but picked their own teams. They also weren’t very busy after school. Kids had to walk or ride bikes to school instead of car rides from parents. School was very different, for there were fewer projects and more memorization. Mrs. Kuttner thinks that the way we do school today is more interesting than when she was a kid.

Mrs. Kuttner chose to teach at Bay Farm so she could work closer to home. During the first year she taught at Bay Farm, she realized that the school acts as a part of her family. An added bonus was that she could teach with second grade teacher Mrs. Lewis, one of her very best friends!

Over her last 12 years of teaching, she learned about recycling and composting in the Bay Area. She soon realized that our school could help with recycling and composting. At first, it was difficult to get students recycle responsibly. She had to work with parents and other Alameda teachers to help students recycle. She did reach her goal and today Bay Farm students are monitoring recycling at our school. Students also teach their parents about the importance of recycling.

Because of all her efforts, Alameda Unified School District won the Golden Bell Award for recycling in their schools. AUSD thought that Mrs. Kuttner did most of the work in helping recycle, so they sent her to the awards ceremony and had her accept the award for the district.

“This was a great honor for me, and I am proud to be part of a team of people working hard to make the schools in Alameda more environmentally responsible places to work and learn,” Mrs. Kuttner said.

Mrs. Kuttner says she really likes her job at Bay Farm. She says her job is both creative and challenging. Her students give her a fun time too, cracking funny jokes and laughing. She really likes working with the teachers at Bay Farm because they care so much about their students and are striving to make the school better.

Besides school teaching, Mrs. Kuttner enjoys hiking up the Oakland Hills. She enjoys the beauty of the hill or the redwood forest. She also likes to cook, work in her garden, ride her bike, and dance.

We thank Mrs. Kuttner very much for her efforts to make Bay Farm and other AUSD schools more green. She is one teacher who has changed all our lives for the better.