By L. Anne Newell

Photo by Jeannette Maré-Packard

Arizona Daily Star

January 10, 2009

PHOTO: Susie Speelman, center, shows off her Ben's Bell. She is surrounded by staffers of Sunrise Drive Elementary School, including Lynn Gianninoto, fourth from left, who nominated her on behalf of all the educational assistants who work with her to help special-needs students succeed in mainstream classes.

TUCSON - The recipient of this week's Ben's Bell is Susie Speelman, who strives to help all students at Sunrise Drive Elementary School feel important and accepted.

Speelman is the special-education inclusion teacher at the school, 5301 E. Sunrise Drive, and was nominated by Lynn Gianninoto on behalf of all the educational assistants who work with Speelman to help special-needs students succeed in mainstream classes.

"The children are very, very fortunate to have her," Gianninoto said. "She's all about them and what else can she do to make their lives enriched."

Speelman has been a teacher since 1979, starting in general education classes, then moving on to instruct both children and adults in jobs on the Navajo and Havasupai nations, at a private school in Tucson and in the Flowing Wells Unified School District. She arrived at Sunrise Drive, in the Catalina Foothills Unified School District, 17 years ago.

Along the way, she obtained her master's degree and now works with a staff of educational assistants to help the special students at Sunrise Drive.

That work includes making lesson plans, modifying curriculum to students' different academic levels and working with them to find whatever else they need to succeed.

"Our goal is to keep the kiddos in the regular classroom as much as possible," she said.

And Speelman goes much further than is required to make that happen, Gianninoto said.

Speelman's workday typically begins around 5 a.m., Gianninoto said, and she's almost always on campus until 6:30 p.m. She doesn't just adapt lesson plans to disabilities, but to different students, making sure the work is perfectly specialized, she said. And Speelman works with families to help them get what they need, even if that means necessities for life outside of school.

"She does it all very gently, too. She doesn't rule with an iron hand at all. The children love her," Gianninoto said. "She's quite a woman."

Speelman is much-appreciated by staff members, too, Gianninoto said, because of her constantly optimistic perspective.

"Her hope trickles down to the rest of us," she said. "When I see her dedication and the love that she puts into each one of these children, it just amazes me. It's endless, it's bountiful, truly. I call her the Energizer Bunny. She just never stops."

Her approach to teaching comes from the heart, Speelman said, and with a little help from genetics.

Her father was a teacher, and her husband, Thomas Dillon, is, too, working with adults with disabilities. She's known since grade school that she wanted to be a teacher, a flash that came to her from her inspirational third-grade teacher.

"My heart guides me," she said. "Academics are important, but friendships are huge, so we try for acceptance. I work really hard for the general-ed kids to understand my kids, and appreciate their differences. I just think the more knowledge kids have, the more they understand, the better for everyone."

It was an easy pick for the folks with the bells. They stopped by the school on Thursday morning for an extra- special presentation.

Gianninoto and crew spent the morning spreading the word about the presentation and then met Ben's mother, Jeannette Maré-Packard, at the office. They walked into the classroom where Speelman was working with a student. Then others began walking in through two other doors. Eventually, there were about 40 people in the room, including Principal Julie Sherrill, teachers and students, who had a break between classes.

Speelman was a bit taken aback, looking up at the growing crowd and asking, "Is everything OK?" As they shouted "Surprise!" and "Congratulations!" Maré-Packard presented her with her bell.

"I was speechless," Speelman said afterward. "I felt really honored, and I really liked that the kids came. I was crying, and a student I'm with twice a day asked, 'Are you crying from your heart?' and that made me cry even more."

The award was especially sweet for the school because Speelman is the second of its teachers to be "belled." Reading teacher Lori Patton was honored in March 2007, after she was nominated by a mother of two students.

Speelman was humble about all the praise heaped upon her, saying her kindness and compassion are just the result of how she was raised and what she believes is right.

"I believe our world will be a better place if we're all more accepting," she said. "My father and mother were a huge influence. They raised me to be a very caring person and to think about others."

Besides, she said, "children are our future, and it's important to guide them so they use their hearts when they're adults."

The lessons Speelman teaches those students are long- lasting, Gianninoto said.

"They realize that no matter what their special needs are, that they are capable, that they are stars and that they can certainly be a part, an integral part, of society," she said.

"We're all very lucky that she's in our lives and she does what she does. She's a very special lady," Gianninoto said of Speelman.

● L. Anne Newell