Tradewinds Elementary School
Coconut Creek, FL
Ms. Putney has been inspiring students and colleagues throughout her teaching career. She is a 2 time State Winner of the Disney Environmentality Challenge. Her students clean up streets, adopt highways, reduce lunchbox litter, & help protect sea turtles. She has monthly beach clean ups. Her students meet with government officials and study policies that affect the environment; this earned her Florida Social Studies Teacher of the Year. During the pandemic, she restored a memorial butterfly garden on the school’s campus. She wrote grants and secured funding. The Arielle Anacker Butterfly Garden is now a place of beauty where students read, reflect, and continue to learn about the environment. She takes courses to enhance her teaching abilities and shares what she learns. She engages learners who simply think they are having fun! She teaches at the beach, the school yard, the cafeteria, parks, stores and more. She was named to the USA Today All-Star Teacher Team (one of only 20 teachers in the country.) She is a National Board Certified Teacher, was chosen as a two-time Fulbright Scholar.