COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Teacher retires but her lessons remain

After teaching for 39 years, Nancy Heiman will soon retire. She is a fifth-grade teacher at Davis Elementary School in Costa Mesa. Davis is the final stop for this wonderful teacher who has taught at Sonora for 29 years before coming to Davis.

Her years of service in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District have been replete with many honors and awards.

She was nominated in 1989 for the California Award for Excellence in Elementary Mathematics Teaching. In 2004, she received the Honorary Service Award for Davis Elementary School. Heiman has also been honored as Teacher of the Year at Davis. She went on to become the district’s Teacher of the Year in that same year and semi-finalist for Orange County.

All of the aforementioned honors are a direct reflection of the kind of educator Nancy Heiman is.

When you enter her class, you immediately feel as though you have entered a loving home.

Her lessons are designed to make learning a challenge for her students while providing for interest and fun.

She is constantly seeking new ways to present “old” concepts. She infuses “learning by doing” into her curriculum.

Heiman has a gift for teaching and caring for her students.

In her years in the classroom, her students have been affected by her for the rest of their lives.

She speaks to them in a respectful, nurturing manner, and, in turn, her classroom is a “home” for them, a safe place. They know what to expect when they arrive and are not disappointed. Her gift for teaching is ever present in her daily work.

To quote Nancy Heiman: “ ‘I think I can, I think I can,’ tooted the little engine that could. That is the ultimate message I want my students to perceive — to gain the self-confidence to succeed. It is my responsibility, as an educator, to awaken a sense of accomplishment or success in each student.”

Thank you, Ms. Heiman, for working your magic with students in the past and present. You will be missed!

is the assistant principal of Davis Elementary School in Costa Mesa.