Dale M. Berry has been a gifted educator for the past 24 years. Her drive for excellence in physical education has inspired creative outlets for her students. Through fun, team-building fitness activities, Dale Berry instills in her students leadership skills and the importance of lifelong fitness. Dale Berry is a physical education teacher at Floyds Knobs Elementary School in Floyds Knobs, Ind.
Ms. Berry is a 1972 graduate of Michigan State University’s College of Education. She received her bachelor’s degree in physical education. She also holds two master’s degrees, one from Ball State University and one from Western Kentucky University.
For 24 years, Ms. Berry has been teaching physical education to students, having taught kindergarten through 10 th grade. Outside the classroom, she has been just as active. As a coach of elementary girls and boys cross country and track, her teams won the championship three times, in each sport. She founded a ski club for fourth and fifth graders and she leads a performing jump rope team of 100 students. While not in school, Ms. Berry conducts swimming lessons. Even more impressive, Ms. Berry has taken her enthusiasm for exercise across seas. She traveled to Poland to teach children jump rope and basketball skills.
Because of her incredible loyalty to physical education, in 1998, Indiana named Dale Berry the Physical Education Teacher of the Year. In 2001, she received the ExCEL Award, an award designed to recognize excellent educators.
Ms. Berry has demonstrated leadership in her role as an educator. For the past 14 years, she has served on the executive committee of the board of directors for the Indiana Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. For many years, she has been the coordinator of Jump Rope for the Heart and Hoops for the Heart.
In her school and in her community, Ms. Berry has successfully promoted the importance of lifelong fitness.