Woten

HARRISBURG — A Pittsburgh-area middle school teacher who dramatically increased student participation in his school's music program during his career was named Pennsylvania's 2008 Teacher of the Year on Tuesday.

David Woten Jr., 38, who teaches in the North Allegheny School District, was selected from a field of 12 finalists. He will represent Pennsylvania in the national Teacher of the Year competition in Washington, D.C., in the spring.

The Carson Middle School teacher oversees the sixth- and seventh-grade chorus and teaches eighth-grade general music. He said he was inspired to become an educator by teachers he had as youngster in the Ambridge School District, and that he chose music because he recognized it was his strongest talent.

"It was something I was successful at early," Woten said.

Woten earned a bachelor's degree from Slippery Rock University in 1991 and a master's from Duquesne University in 1996. He has spent his entire 16-year teaching career at the middle school, where the number of students enrolled in the sixth and seventh grade music elective classes has grown from 35 to more than 250 during his tenure.

Woten was nominated by middle school principal Brian Miller, who said he also plays a key role as a mentor to new hires and to student teachers who are assigned to his classroom.

"His impact on learning is incredible," Miller said.

One of his former students, Amy Mencini, recalled that on her first day in his classroom, Woten greeted students with a song and a huge smile as he stood by the doorway.

He kept a positive attitude, even when students were having a bad day or struggling to learn a difficult composition, said Mencini, now a 16-year-old high school sophomore.

"Being the wise teacher that he is, he used his energetic ways and creativity to help a large group of kids, all at different levels of musical talent, to achieve what we thought were unattainable goals," she said.