DR. TIMY BARANOFF
Our Namesake
Timy Genrich
Baranoff was born and raised in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, and married
Mort Baranoff in 1944 while he was in the Royal Canadian Air
Force. Mort later became a professor of art at The University of
Texas at Austin. This career move settled the couple and their two
children in Austin.
Timy earned
her bachelor of science degree in elementary education from The University
of Texas at Austin in 1963. She also
earned a master’s
degree in curriculum and instruction in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1974, both
from UT Austin. Her first position with AISD was teaching kindergarten
at Casis Elementary School. Dedicated to teaching, she held this position
for 12 years and spent three of her summers as a professor at Trinity University
in San Antonio.
In 1975,
Timy left Casis to become the Primary Instructional Coordinator for
AISD. She would later also become the District’s
Early Childhood Coordinator. The District took notice of Timy’s
unwavering dedication to education and appointed her Director of Curriculum
for Elementary
Education. From 1992 to 1993, Timy held her last position for AISD
as Director of Special Projects. Although she retired in 1993, Timy
has not stopped caring about Austin students and their education. To this
day, Timy is still impacting education in Austin by serving as an education
consultant and a community volunteer.
Since her
arrival in Austin, Timy has volunteered with numerous education-related
organizations. She served
as the president of
For the Children from 1987
to 1994, was a member of the Child Care Council, Connections Resource,
Center, and the Campus Leadership Team, and also worked with special
committees such as the Rising Star Writing Conference an Thrive by
Five.
Timy has
been member of several professional organizations, such as Delta Kappa
Gamma, Phi
Delta Kappa, Austin Association for the Education of Young
Children, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She
is currently the president of the Austin Retired Teachers Association.
When an
educator contributes such amazing efforts in the hopes of bettering
student lives, it does not go unnoticed. Timy Baranoff has received several
awards and recognitions throughout her career. She was the recipient
of the Sallie Beth Moore Award, L.D. Haskew Award, Outstanding Elementary
Teachers of America Award, and Senior Volunteer Award, just to name a few.
All of these awards honored Timy for her advancement of elementary education
and service to the Austin community.
“Timy is a very child-focused individual. Her entire life has been
dedicated to young people and their education,” says Debra Sansom,
Baranoff Elementary's first principal.
Being selected
by District Trustees as the name for a new Austin elementary school
is a very prestigious honor. Timy shared her
feelings about receiving
such a recognition, in a poem, with the students of Baranoff Elementary.
...I
sat still for a moment and thought what that meant
To receive such an honor was indeed a special event
It was amazing, incredible, my heart gave a leap,
I couldn’t breathe for a moment, then I thought,
‘there’d be promises to keep’...
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