Saturday, March 8, 1997
Name: Pamela Shim
Age: 37
Position: Iolani teacher
Education: Chaminade, UH
Pastimes: Crafts, reading
"I like the active-student-involvement aspect of it," said Shim, named 1996 Hawaii Pacific University Elementary Economic Teacher of the Year. "At this point of the school year, they are becoming very responsible for their choices."
Shim implements the "mini-society" program into the social studies curriculum in February.
The program, which covers nine to 11 weeks, starts with lessons on scarcity and the community.
"Since everything in the world is scarce, they learn that each decision has to count, so it needs to be evaluated carefully," Shim said. "Then we try to tie in back to community, which is a group of people with a set of rules."
With the groundwork, the students establish an economic community, set up according to their own rules. "They create their own money system and determine how much each job pays," Shim said. "Students have to apply for different jobs and determine their own leadership.
A Sacred Hearts Academy graduate, Shim and another Iolani third-grade teacher, Geraldine Cole, were named co-winners of a 1996 National Geographic Society award for their "Legendary Travels" program in which students selected a legend from a country and researched it.