Teacher of the year

The grammar lesson centered on the mind-numbing topic of reflective and intensive pronouns, but the seventh-graders couldn't take their eyes off the teacher working the classroom. Barbara Jones in the Daily News.

They laughed as Rebecca Mieliwocki crunched her biceps and shook an imaginary volleyball, creating images of reflexes and intensity to help them grasp the rules for using words ending in "self." They completed a work sheet to an instrumental by the Black-Eyed Peas -- "relaxing music to learn grammar by!" she cried -- and later competed for Sour Patch candy in a boys vs. girls test of their grammar skills.

Mieliwocki's techniques may be unorthodox, but they're also effective -- a combination that captured the attention and admiration of the