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As she gives them directions for their next writing project, she gently picks up and turns around a boy who had gotten interested in the back of the room and started to face that way.
Luetjen, 32, of West Hartford, is a nine-year veteran teacher at Whiting Lane Elementary School, adept at techniques for teaching kindergarten and special education, and often combining the two. Her talent as a teacher - a promise first recognized by a Future Teacher of America scholarship she won while attending Newington High School -- led her to be named first West Hartford Teacher of the Year then, last week, Connecticut Teacher of the Year.
"She is a remarkable individual, and probably one of the best teachers I have ever seen," said Whiting Lane Principal Nancy DePalma.
Last school year, Luetjen, who had been working as a kindergarten teacher, volunteered to switch over and teach special education for a year to save a colleague's job after a kindergarten section was eliminated.
She took the job with the condition that she could tinker with the program, which she did: she arranged for more inclusion of special education students into the regular kindergarten classroom, and she borrowed special education techniques and provided them to all students.
Yoga, which she said is known to be beneficial to special needs students, was taught to the entire class once a week. An occupation therapist, whom three special needs students once stepped out from the classroom and went to the basement to see, gave a lesson to the entire class in the classroom. And three autistic students who had previously learned almost exclusively in one-on-one settings and through small group work stayed in the classroom for 95 percent of their school day.
"They made friends, and their language acquisition was through the roof," said Luetjen about those students.
Her classroom innovations came on the heels of a year spent battling breast cancer, now two years in remission.
"She was such an inspiration to watch the entire time she was going through her treatments," DePalma said.
Luetjen, who taught throughout that time, said her students helped sustain her.
"They want to learn, so you keep going, for them," she said. "Their year couldn't be compromised because I was sick."
On a table in her classroom is a pile of congratulatory cards and flowers, many in her favorite color: dark purple. Student testimonials to her abilities as a teacher hang in the school office.
"Ms. Luetjen is cool! She is helpful and if you forget directions, she is nice enough to tell you it back," wrote Carter Ramos.
As if in appreciation for her work, her students were on their best behavior when a committee involved with naming the Connecticut Teacher of the Year visited her classroom. A special education student who had never spoken in the classroom raised his hand and offered the correct answer to her question. And when asked by committee members about their teacher, her students offered a wealth of information about their teacher.
Sometimes her hair is curly and sometimes her hair is straight, she wears fancy clothes and she has a dog named Gracie, they told the committee.
