2 0 0 1   P L T   O U T S T A N D I N G   E D U C A T O R                            

Renae Chandler is a classroom teacher with 29 years experience. She has a Masters Degree plus 30 hours from Louisiana State University. She has taught for over twenty-five years at South Highlands Magnet School, a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon School. South Highlands has also been Louisiana's highest ranked school of academic excellence for the past three years. During her classroom experienced Renae has taught kindergarten through fifth grade students. She has also supervised student teachers from LSU for over eighteen years while in the regular classroom. For the last three years she has taught over ninety second and third grade gifted students in the Gateway Program.

Since Renae's first exposure to Project Learning Tree in 1989 at the teachers' workshop, she has not only incorporated PLT activities into the classroom regularly, but has also continued to further enhance her environmental education efforts. Renae has a strong interest in forestry and the environment from both a personal and professional standpoint.
As the owners of several hundred acres of tree farms in northwest Louisiana, she and her husband Harmon have worked diligently to increase their knowledge of sound forest management practices and to keep up with the most current information to take care of their land. Their commitment is obvious by their involvement in programs.

When Renae became aware of PLT, she attended a teachers' workshop as soon as possible. In the summer of 2000, Renae participated in a week-long forestry teachers' tour, a program initiated by former Louisiana PLT coordinator Jimmy Culpepper. In the spring of 2001, Renae and Harmon participated in the south-wide Master Tree Farmer program which consisted of financial commitment as they sponsored another teacher for the same annual teachers' tour that Renae attended the previous year.

Renae's commitment to environmental education has a personal and a professional side. Personally, she continues to study and learn so that she may apply and practice her gained knowledge to her forest land. This situation gives her practical application experience to incorporate in classroom activities. Professionally, she not only continues to enhance her own background for improving environmental education, she also promotes and provides opportunities for others in her school and community to do the same. She has certainly made a positive impact on environmental education in Louisiana.