BELIEVING IS SUCCEEDING TEACHER'S PASSION REWARDED.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Gloria Ingalls remembered the day that Monte Vista School teacher Janice Forte-Watson went above and beyond the call of duty for Ingalls' 6-year-old daughter.

Ingalls' daughter, Cassie de Haan, was home sick with the flu for the first grade field trip to the Los Angeles Zoo, which left the girl ``absolutely devastated and crying.''

On the bus ride south, with excited students heard in the background, Forte-Watson telephoned and asked to speak to Cassie, Ingalls said.

Cassie at first refused, but Forte-Watson insisted, and their conversation put a smile on Cassie's face. The teacher had told her she would bring her something from the zoo.

After Forte-Watson returned from the field trip at 3 p.m., she came by the house and presented to Cassie a stuffed animal, a book and a get well card signed by the entire class that said, ``To Cassie, We missed you today. Hope you feel better.''

``I just thought that was really remarkable. She didn't have to do this. She went beyond the duty of teachers, and she cares about her students,'' Ingalls said.

Forte-Watson is Lancaster School District's Teacher of the Year, an honor that runs in the family. Her sister, Linda Cayce, a teacher at Amargosa Creek Middle School, got the award in 2002.

``When students are not believing in themselves, that they can't do something and I see them come to the realization that they have great ability and that they can learn, when I see that light come on, when they have achieved something, it's very fulfilling,'' Forte-Watson said. ``I believe all students can learn. My job is to figure out how they do that best.''

Teaching is Forte-Watson's second career. After getting a business degree from California State University, Northridge, she worked in public relations in Sherman Oaks until 1987, when she had the first of her three children.

Beginning in 1991 she began volunteering as a parent at Monte Vista, her children's school, and that experience drew her into teaching.

``Volunteering in the classrooms, I enjoyed working with the students. I think they are like sponges -- if you teach them they will learn being here on a daily basis,'' Forte-Watson said. ``I decided it was something I wanted to go into. It allowed me to be on the same schedule with my children and have a career.''

After getting a teaching credential, Forte-Watson began teaching in 1996.

Adriana Terry's son, Dawson, is in Forte-Watson's class and said the teacher has made smooth the sometimes-rocky transition from kindergarten to first grade.

``I love Mrs. Watson. She has been such a wonderful teacher. She has been such an asset to my son's education,'' Terry said. ``She provides good curriculum, is a good role model and is a motivation to the children.''

Principal Elaine Darby said Forte-Watson is an exceptional teacher, whose model classroom serves as a training site for education consultants from the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

``I have often sent my newer staff into her room to look at classroom management strategies,'' Darby said. ``Her management style is magical to watch. It's a classroom climate that is positive and allows children to feel confident about their ability to achieve.''

Forte-Watson, 44, grew up with five siblings in west Lancaster near Fox Field. The daughter of a housewife and the pastor of Lancaster's Growing Valley Baptist Church, she vowed never to return to the Antelope Valley after she moved away in 1978 to Northridge to attend college.

``Growing up in Lancaster, there was nothing here. We had no neighbors; we had tumbleweeds. The next-door neighbor was a quarter-mile away,'' Forte-Watson recalled.

But after starting her family, she returned in 1991.

``I think mainly with three children, I wanted to be closer to my mother. I appreciated the openness in Lancaster. Your perspective changes. My family's here. This is where my roots are,'' she said.

She and her husband, who works at Vons Market, live in Lancaster. They have two sons at Lancaster High School and a daughter in her first year at Antelope Valley College.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Janice Forte-Watson of Monte Vista Elementary school is honored as the Lancaster School District's Teacher of the Year. ``I believe all students can learn. My job is to figure out how they do that best,'' Janice Fort-Watson.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer