aoconnell@thestamfordtimes.com

STAMFORD— When Sandra Carlton wants the 23 students in her third grade classroom at Northeast to learn something new, she doesn't just teach them, she involves them.

She has her class come up with activities so that they can teach the first graders about units of measure. She holds miniature boat races to teach the students the properties of water. To teach students about types of writing, she made a big chart and had the entire class take part in a picture book study, during which the students spent weeks mimicking the writing style of each of five authors and finished the unit by writing their own picture books.

Carlton was named Stamford's Teacher of the Year last week.

The 35-year-old Stamford native was nominated for the honor by her assistant principal, Constance Stevenson.

"There is no child left behind in Sandra Carlton's classroom," said Stevenson, who noted that Carlton has seven qualities that are vital in an educator. She is a nurturer, an observer, a motivator, a communicator, a facilitator, an assessor and a planner, said Stevenson. She knows all of her students well, she knows what makes them learn and she cares about each child.

"The children know how much she cares," said Stevenson. "They work for her. She presents something in November and they know it May."

"She's a wonderful teacher," said Northeast principal Ethan Margolis, who jokes that he gets strange notes from Carlton at all hours of the day, suggesting that the school take a certain approach with one child, or that maybe another child's parents should be contacted.

Carlton's dedication to her job got her appointed last year as a teacher leader within the school. She helps instruct other teachers on curriculum and takes a leadership role within the building.

Carlton has spent her life in Stamford. She went to Newfield School, Turn of River and Stamford High, from which she graduated in 1991. She went on to the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where during a volunteer experience she decided that she wanted to be a teacher.

"During my freshman year of college, I went off-campus to volunteer at a local elementary school and I just fell in love with the kids I was assigned to," said Carlton.

Shortly thereafter, Carlton went back to her own kindergarten teacher, testing her new dream by volunteering in that teacher's classroom.

"She said, 'Sandra you were always a teacher, I could have told you that from day one,'" laughed Carlton.

Carlton says that once she chose to be a teacher, she has never looked back.

She's worked at Hart Magnet School for five years, and worked at Hart, Stillmeadow and Stark as a teacher with the now-defunct Extraordinary Learners' Program, then came to Northeast five years ago. She is married to another alumnus of the Stamford Schools, Peter Cartlon, and the couple has three children; Alexandra, 7, Elizabeth, 5 and James, who is almost one.

Personally, Carlton said her biggest challenge is not in the classroom. With 23 third graders at school and three young children of her own, Carlton says something has to give.

"I would never get the award for the cleanest house," she joked.