Top Teachers
Saturday, September 19, 1998
Name: Richard Heyd
Age: 47
Position: Kamehameha Schools teacher
Education: Clark University and Wilmington College
Pastimes: Sports, reading, travel
Each year, students in Richard Heyd's U.S. history class write diaries as if they were a crew member in Christopher Columbus' voyage to America. Making history come to life
Heyd, who teaches eighth-grade American history at Kamehameha Schools, said students also re-enact what it feels like to be a slave before the Civil War. Each student has their arms and legs bound in tape as if they were a slave being transported from Africa. Heyd then makes each student lie down and watch an episode of "Roots."
Afterward, they write an essay about the experience and what they learned from the video. The slavery project is part of an interactive curriculum called History Alive, designed to teach students about history beyond the textbook.
Sandy Young, chairperson of the social studies department, said Heyd, who is in his ninth year teaching social studies at Kamehameha, definitely makes history come to life in the classroom.
"He uses such a variety of methods to motivate students," Young said. "First of all, he's a very knowledgeable person, and he's able to relate everything that's going on in the world with what happened in the past."
Before moving back to Hawaii, Heyd spent 10 years teaching high school in Delaware.
Tony Ramos, principal for the secondary school, agrees. "He's just very well respected," Ramos said. "He certainly gets results from our students, and that's what it's all about."
Shirley Iida, Star-Bulletin
