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STLtoday - News - St. Charles
Lindenwood University education professor Rebecca Panagos is dedicated to teaching methods that help elementary children, especially those who have difficulties, to read. She herself is deaf — a disability she prefers to downplay — and is a skilled lip reader.
Last month, Panagos, 54, was one of about 100 area teachers from the elementary to the university level to be presented with the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award. Panagos was recognized for instituting a before-school remedial reading program in area elementary schools.
Panagos' on-site classes are conducted weekly throughout the semester. Faculty members of the partner school attend the half-hour workshops before they return to their classrooms for the day. Panagos then lectures her students. Most are sophomores and juniors taking their first classes in methods of teaching. After the lecture, the students adjourn to the classroom where the teachers practice the strategies Panagos has covered.
"Up to this point my students may have only spent 30-60 hours in a classroom observing," Panagos explained. "It's quite different watching someone put these methods into practice."
Panagos grew up in a family of teachers in Shreveport, La. She has been profoundly deaf since age 3.
She said she became adept at reading lips before anyone realized she was deaf.
She began using hearing aids 24 years ago when her daughter, Anne, was a toddler.
"Her speech wasn't developing well enough, and I felt that because I couldn't hear her I wasn't giving her that early shaping in language," said Panagos, whose speech is articulate. "Hearing aids have become so technologically advanced that I don't consider myself as a person with a disability."
Panagos said specialists had recommended that her parents board their daughter at a state school for the deaf. Because her speech was so advanced, the family decided to keep her home and send her to public schools. She took piano lessons for six years, plus dance lessons.
She said she never felt disabled.
"They would push me out on the stage at recital time so that they could set the record to start with my first step," she said. "I thought I got to do a solo because I was the best. It didn't occur to me that I may have messed everybody up."
Panagos's grandmother was a retired teacher who sat in on her granddaughter's classes weekly until Panagos was in the fourth grade. The grandmother helped with homework after school, over milk and cookies.
"If the teacher forgot to write the homework on the board, I reminded her," Panagos said. "You could say I helped train teachers."
Panagos graduated with undergraduate and graduate degrees from Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La., where she ranked 13th in a class of 500. She earned a doctorate in special education from the University of Missouri at Columbia. Before starting her job at Lindenwood 10 years ago, she served as a school counselor, vocational evaluator and resource teacher at the Special School District of St. Louis County.
Panagos presents lectures and workshops at colleges, universities and medical schools. She is the faculty sponsor for a Lindenwood teachers group affiliated with the National Council for Exceptional Children.
She makes a point of getting to know special-education students on a one-to-one basis.
"They're my pipeline as to what's going on in the classroom, and I continue learning from them," she said.
Panagos lives in the Harvester area of St. Charles County. She and her husband, Dennis Panagos, recently celebrated their 30th anniversary. They have three children and three grandchildren.
Rick Boyle, dean of faculty at Lindenwood, nominated Panagos for the Emerson Award. He cited her for her initiative and organizational skills that enhanced learning for Lindenwood's education students as well as elementary school students and their teachers.
Lindenwood University education professor Rebecca Panagos is dedicated to teaching methods that help elementary children, especially those who have difficulties, to read. She herself is deaf — a disability she prefers to downplay — and is a skilled lip reader.
Last month, Panagos, 54, was one of about 100 area teachers from the elementary to the university level to be presented with the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award. Panagos was recognized for instituting a before-school remedial reading program in area elementary schools.
Panagos' on-site classes are conducted weekly throughout the semester. Faculty members of the partner school attend the half-hour workshops before they return to their classrooms for the day. Panagos then lectures her students. Most are sophomores and juniors taking their first classes in methods of teaching. After the lecture, the students adjourn to the classroom where the teachers practice the strategies Panagos has covered.
"Up to this point my students may have only spent 30-60 hours in a classroom observing," Panagos explained. "It's quite different watching someone put these methods into practice."
Panagos grew up in a family of teachers in Shreveport, La. She has been profoundly deaf since age 3.
She said she became adept at reading lips before anyone realized she was deaf.
She began using hearing aids 24 years ago when her daughter, Anne, was a toddler.
"Her speech wasn't developing well enough, and I felt that because I couldn't hear her I wasn't giving her that early shaping in language," said Panagos, whose speech is articulate. "Hearing aids have become so technologically advanced that I don't consider myself as a person with a disability."
Panagos said specialists had recommended that her parents board their daughter at a state school for the deaf. Because her speech was so advanced, the family decided to keep her home and send her to public schools. She took piano lessons for six years, plus dance lessons.
She said she never felt disabled.
"They would push me out on the stage at recital time so that they could set the record to start with my first step," she said. "I thought I got to do a solo because I was the best. It didn't occur to me that I may have messed everybody up."
Panagos's grandmother was a retired teacher who sat in on her granddaughter's classes weekly until Panagos was in the fourth grade. The grandmother helped with homework after school, over milk and cookies.
"If the teacher forgot to write the homework on the board, I reminded her," Panagos said. "You could say I helped train teachers."
Panagos graduated with undergraduate and graduate degrees from Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La., where she ranked 13th in a class of 500. She earned a doctorate in special education from the University of Missouri at Columbia. Before starting her job at Lindenwood 10 years ago, she served as a school counselor, vocational evaluator and resource teacher at the Special School District of St. Louis County.
Panagos presents lectures and workshops at colleges, universities and medical schools. She is the faculty sponsor for a Lindenwood teachers group affiliated with the National Council for Exceptional Children.
She makes a point of getting to know special-education students on a one-to-one basis.
"They're my pipeline as to what's going on in the classroom, and I continue learning from them," she said.
Panagos lives in the Harvester area of St. Charles County. She and her husband, Dennis Panagos, recently celebrated their 30th anniversary. They have three children and three grandchildren.
Rick Boyle, dean of faculty at Lindenwood, nominated Panagos for the Emerson Award. He cited her for her initiative and organizational skills that enhanced learning for Lindenwood's education students as well as elementary school students and their teachers.