TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK
2 isle teachers honored with presidential award
Two public school teachers from Hawaii have received the 2005 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, winning grants of $10,000 each.
Loren Ayresman, a math teacher at King Kekaulike High School on Maui, and Jeanine Nakakura, who teaches science to gifted students at various schools in the McKinley complex, visited Washington, D.C., for the awards ceremony last week.
The pair are among 100 secondary school teachers from public and private schools nationwide who received the presidential awards, along with free trips to Washington, D.C.
The awards are considered the nation's highest honor for math and science teaching. The National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency, administers the program on behalf of the White House.
"My teaching style would be called 'student centered' because I teach according to my students' needs," Ayresman said. "An important part of teaching mathematics for me and any teacher is to make math relevant to the lives of our students."
"By teaching in a way that is integrated with other disciplines and teaching content that is not ordinarily covered in high school, my students feel empowered to be successful in mathematics."
Raylene Chock, a superintendent of the McKinley/Roosevelt complex of schools, called Nakakura an "excellent teacher" whose award was well deserved. Nakakura previously taught at the high school level and has "really been able to support the elementary school kids" in developing their interest and competence in science, Chock said.