Encinitas Union School District
101 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road
Encinitas, California 92024-4349
Phone: (760) 944-4300 | FAX (760) 944-4393

Nanci Orth named
Olivenhain Pioneer Teacher of the Year

Nanci Orth, Teacher of the Year at Olivenhain Pioneer, truly exemplifies the qualities of an outstanding teacher and an exceptional human being. Nanci possess the qualities and life skills valued by the Encinitas Union School District. She has been a teacher for 24 years and has taught first through fifth grades. She has taught in the Encinitas Union School District for 17 years. She earned her B.A. at San Diego State University in Liberal Studies. Nanci was selected as OPE’s Teacher of the Year because of her continual demonstration of her commitment to the principle of  "Children First."

Her Service Learning Projects include:

• The School Box Project - 2nd grade students at OPE organized the collection of plastic school boxes filled with supplies for school aged children in Tijuana, Mexico.
• The Gift of Learning Project - Nanci and her 2nd grade team coordinated a school wide endeavor to raise funds needed to build and set up Montessori Practice Centers throughout the communities of Tijuana. With input from Montessori Phoenix Projects, they compiled a wish list of supplies that were needed to set up the practice centers used for teacher training.
• The School Bag Project - Nanci's 1st/2nd grade combination class organized the collection of school supply satchels for children in a free school site in the community of Esparanza in Tijuana. This school was created for children in the community that do not go to school. The instructors were community members trained in the Montessori Phoenix Projects Teacher Training Program.
• The Seed of Kindness Project - Nanci’s 1st grade students are demonstrating the extraordinary power and importance of simple human kindness by practicing and promoting kind acts, large and small, on a regular basis - "Random Acts of Kindness." She has developed a Kindness Club that meets one day a week at lunch and has invited other 1st grade students to participate.

Currently Nanci serves as a PAR (Peer Assistance and Review) Consulting Teacher and is working with one voluntary teacher. Additionally, she has represented EUSD at the San Diego County Office of Education on the "Standards in Action" committee where she wrote curriculum that supports the CA Math Standards for Geometry at her grade level. She has also presented lessons on thematic teaching, integrated learning and instructional strategies at numerous workshops throughout the district and at the Starfire Academy.

As part of her mentor teaching experience a few years ago, Nanci compiled a handbook on "Mainstreaming Special Education Students into the Regular Education Classroom" which was used by the North Coastal Consortium for Special Education in the Integration Resource Manual.

While accomplishing all of the above, she has still continued to be an outstanding classroom teacher who provides creative, exciting lessons that motivate children to be the best they can be. She plans and designs differentiated instruction that meets the needs of every child in her class. As a participant in the first Learning Network training, she consistently implements strategies to address different learning styles of students. She truly models lifelong learning and is a mentor to others.