Name: Angela Church
Age: 42
Position: Wailupe Valley Elementary
Education: University of Hawaii-Manoa
Pastimes: Her children's sporting events, hiking

Now she does.

Seven years later, Church is one of the most popular - and decorated - teachers at Wailupe Valley Elementary School.

She is one of four Hawaii recipients of the illustrious 1996 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award. With it comes $25,000.

"The children were so excited when they heard the announcement, it was a positive riot," said Principal Wendy Yoshimoto.

Church was picked in part for her classroom innovations - she got her sixth-grade students at the small school involved in an Internet learning exercise about the environment and in Pedestrian City, where students create their own city, establishing laws, jobs and wages for its citizens.

But Yoshimoto said it's Church's competence and compassion that make her extraordinary. Not only do students score above average on standardized tests, Yoshimoto said, they get nurturing to make a smooth emotional transition to middle school.

At graduation last year, almost every sixth-grader acknowledged Church, Yoshimoto said.

"And when one child came out and said she was one of his two best friends, that she was always there when he needed her, it was just very, very touching."