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Meyer named state finalist for Presidential Award

Remember the remarkable science teacher who made the subject come alive? How about the math teacher who helped you become comfortable with numbers and excited about the tricks they can perform? Sally Meyer of Peeples Elementary is one of these outstanding teachers, and now she is being rewarded for her success. She has been named a state finalist for the 2004 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the nation’s highest honor for K-12 teaching in these fields.

“This is an honor,” said Meyer, one of 239 finalists for the prestigious presidential award. “I am excited and surprised to be a finalist.”

“The best teachers deserve to know that the rest of us recognize and value their molding of the future of the nation in their classrooms,” said Mark Saul, Ph.D., program director of elementary, secondary, and informal education programs at the National Science Foundation. “By providing models of teachers who demonstrate daily how to move students in every kind of school to do better than they thought their best could be, we hope to unleash similar creativity in other teachers, and to attract new recruits to the mathematics and science teaching profession.”

Established by Congress in 1983, and administered for the White House by the National Science Foundation, the annual Presidential Awards program identifies outstanding mathematics and science teachers nationwide and in four U.S. territories. Each state can select up to three mathematics and three science teachers as state finalists. From this field of state finalists a maximum of 108 presidential award-winners are selected. Recipients of the 2004 presidential awards will be announced during a week of celebration events beginning April 11th in Washington, D.C.

Meyer personifies the dedication and innovation typical of a Presidential Awards state finalist.

"I became a teacher late in life," said Meyer. "I had been a banker for 20 years and didn't feel like I was making a difference. I wanted a change and I had always thought of being a teacher, and here I am seven years later."

Meyer tries to incorporate games into her teaching whenever possible. This can take any number of forms, but one of the keys, according to Meyer, "is to relate what we're doing in the classroom to real life. For example, we were examining the presidential race recently. I love to tie math to history and politics. Real politics and graphing is easy for students to look at."

One of the things that distinguishes Meyer's teaching is the emphasis she places on incorporating a students' language and writing skills to math by having them write out the procedues for varioius equations. In doing so, she ensures that the students have a solid understanding of the steps that needed to be covered. "Writing procedures can be a challenege for fifth-graders, but in doing this I'm able to pinpoint in each student where they are grasping a new concept and where they aren't."

Meyer strives hard to create an atmosphere in her classroom of setting and reaching attainable goals. To explain this idea to her students, Meyer used the example of the Olympic high jump competition, as the Athens Olympics were in the news. "We compared math to the high jump, and I told the kids that they didn’t want the bar too high. They wanted it to keep getting higher."

Meyer continued by saying, "I told them that long division is the hardest thing they are going to learn, and then when they’ve conquered it, it is important to look back and remember how difficult it was at the beginning. Challenges are a part of learning, but I want them to remember the feeling of overcoming those challenges."

The goal of the presidential awards is to expand and model the definition of excellent science and mathematics teaching. Awardees will receive $10,000 from the National Science Foundation and take part in a weeklong series of networking and professional development activities during recognition events in Washington, DC. All 2004 presidential awardees teach grades K-6, but next year grades 7-12 math and science teachers will be eligible. The 2005 nomination forms and instructions are available at www.paemst.org.

"I am thrilled and delighted to have been nominated for this award," said Meyer. "One of the great things about being a teacher is that you still get to learn. The opportunity to evaluate my teaching and knowing that I was going to be judged has given me a real opportunity to grow and improve as a teacher."