LA HABRA : School Board Names Teacher of the Year

Robyn Ospital uses snakes, iguanas and turtles to teach her students to care about and respect each other.

La Habra City School District board members are so impressed with the success she has had in motivating and teaching her young charges that last week they named Ospital the district’s “Teacher of the Year.”

One of her motivating tools is the animals she keeps in her classroom at Walnut Elementary School, where she is an enrichment specialist.

Her specific assignment is to help her third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students, who are above average and high achievers, maintain their interest in school work. She uses the animals as teaching aides.

On a recent morning, four students who were training to become her aides received a special lesson about the animals.

“These are box and desert turtles,” Ospital told Daniel Cazarez, 9. “They’re endangered and you have to have a permit to own them.”

Daniel was so fascinated by the palm-sized turtles that he chose to read a book on them. “I want to learn where they live and what they eat. They’re really delicate and I want to have one,” he said.

“Kids don’t always have a chance to be around these kinds of animals,” Ospital said, watching Lissette Castaneda, 9, handle a garter snake. “I teach them how they have to be handled with care and kindness and that helps them learn respect for people, too.”

Once students lose their fear of touching the cold-blooded animals and begin to want to hold them often, Ospital has them hooked. Students, then, are allowed to pick up the pets only if they complete their homework assignments.

Other teachers use the pets as rewards for their pupils who do well in class.

“It’s a nice reward,” Lissette said. “It makes me want to do all my homework.”

School board members praised Ospital--who owns 12 turtles, three snakes, two iguanas and a parrot--for the way she gets students to want to learn.

“It works,” Ospital said.