MACOMB - If Lincoln School first grade teacher Bess Thompson gets a phone call from the FBI, it will be good indicator that she's received a prestigious national teaching award: The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Thompson said she was told that a phone call from the FBI is how she might learn she has received the award, which comes with $10,000. The award also comes with a trip to the White House - hence the call from the FBI to begin the security clearance process.
Thompson is one of five teachers in the state to be named a finalist for the award, and the only one from west central Illinois. Three other finalists are in the Chicago region and another is in the St. Louis area.
To be considered for the national award, teachers must be nominated. Thompson was nominated back in January by Kishor Kapale, a professor of physics at Western Illinois University whose son was in Thompson's second grade class last year. Thompson has taught third and second grades at Lincoln, and she taught first grade for nine years during the first half of her 20-year career.
When a teaching spot opened up this year in first grade, she asked to be moved back. "I love first grade," she said on Thursday after wrapping up the school day. "First grade is the year where you see everything happen. You see the reading. You see the reading take off. You see the math take off."
Math is Thompson's favorite subject. She likes to teach numbers, particularly what she calls "number sense."
Number sense, Thompson explained, is "just knowing that 10 is 6 and 4, a good base of understanding of place value, so knowing that 78 could be seven tens and eight ones, or it could be six tens and 18 ones. Decomposing numbers in various ways."
Seeing her students 'get it,' Thompson said, is what she enjoys most about teaching math.
"Yesterday we did a missing addend, and it was hard," Thompson recalled. "It was 23 plus something equals a 100. A couple of them said, 'I like this can we do this again tomorrow?' It's when they finally understand it and can apply it."
Thompson incorporates other subjects, such as literature, into math lessons and tries to make it relatable to the world children encounter outside the classroom.
"When we did 3-D shapes, I said, 'Okay, now go home and look in your cabinet and see if you can find an example of a cylinder,'" Thompson said. "We did fractions yesterday, and we talked about a half and fourth. I said, 'So when you're sitting down to supper tonight and you have green beans on your plate, say 'Hey mom, look, I can cut this in half so now I have two halves. So I just try to get them to relate it to things we see.'"
Thompson's ability to break down math and make it relatable to young learners is why Kapale nominated her. He said he was impressed with the sorts of activities his son, Atharva, was doing in class and the level of homework he was bringing home.
Kapale also visited Thompson's class to see her in action and as a teacher himself he was impressed by what he saw.
Thompson, Kapale said, is able to reach students of different learning styles and levels and keep them engaged through a variety of activities. Reaching different levels of students is something all teachers struggle with, Kapale said.
"I saw that she was handling that very well, and that is what impressed me and why I decided to nominate her," he said. "It's her understanding of how kids learn, and her ability to design all kinds of activities to take them to the next level."
Thompson, Kapale noted, also uses online activities that are fun yet challenging.
Receiving a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching starts with the nomination. Once nominated, a teacher must submit an application that includes letters of reference and video of a lesson plan. Each nomination year alternates between K-6th grade teachers and 7th through 12th grade teachers.
Thompson is uncertain when she will receive the award, if she is selected as a recipient. Finalists are named every year, but the award isn't always given out every year. President Barack Obama in August, for example, named 213 recipients that represented two nomination years. Those recipients received their awards at a Sept. 8 ceremony at the White House. The $10,000 from the National Science Foundation can be used at the recipient's discretion. Thompson said if she receives the award she plans to do something for her classroom that will leave behind a legacy.
Source: The McDonough County Voice
Written by Lainie Steelman. Contact Lainie via email at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter@LainieSteelman.