Mr. Steve Greene – Foothill Elementary Orem

Mr. Steve Greene of Orem’s Foothill Elementary, will be retiring in May 2011 after 42 years of teaching. As a fourth grade teacher he begins preparing students for Jr. High by giving them opportunities to work independently and in groups and teaching them the organizational skills they need to be effective students.

Mr. Greene is well liked by the students and puts forth extra effort to make things interesting for his class. He prepares hands on lessons with experiments the students really enjoy. Each month he treats the table with the most “table pints” to a lunch. He holds a weekly prize drawing for students who turn their homework in on time. When he catches a student doing something good they receive a “yellow slip” to enter in a drawing in which every student eventually picks a prize. He has indeed positively influenced the lives of many hundreds of students for good.

I’m nominating Mr. Greene for KSL and Zion’s Bank Teacher Feature not because of the many hundreds of students he influenced, but for how he helped one in particular, my son. Mr. Greene took a special interest in my son who was struggling with his reading and as a result all subject areas. Mr. Greene volunteered to work with him before school on his own time to help him improve his reading skills and my son enjoys the mornings they spend together. His helpful suggestions and the way he offered them showed me he genuinely cared about my son. In just a few months Mr. Greene quite literally helped change my son’s life. I will forever be indebted to him. Nothing I can think of will adequately thank him, but having KSL and Zion’s Bank recognize his efforts is a start.

Sincerely,

Julie Esplin