Staff Celebrations
Laurelhurst Elementary teacher a 2012 state finalist for national math and science teaching award
Deborah Halperin, a third-grade math teacher at Laurelhurst Elementary is a 2012 state finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).
The award is the highest honor for a K-12 mathematics or science teacher. Teachers are recognized for their contributions to teaching and learning and their ability to help students make progress in mathematics and science.
Halperin began teaching at Laurelhurst in 2000 as a math specialist.
In 2008, she transitioned to third grade. Halperin’s love for math is contagious, and her students are obviously deep mathematical thinkers — a quality parents and colleagues attribute to Halperin’s skill at posing questions that guide students to discovery rather than providing “right” answers.
Parents Fred Rieke and Evan Goldstein said, “Debby’s is a class of third-graders occupying an oceanic range of math abilities. And yet, in a manner that we can only characterize as brilliant, she offers this great diversity of kids, each on their own terms, the deep experience of shaping an ill-formed mathematical question into a profound one, and then looking deeply into it. As much as teaching math, she is teaching her students how to think.”
The PAEMST finalists were selected in June by a statewide selection committee composed of content area experts and award-winning teachers. Their nominations were recently confirmed by the national PAEMST program.
PAEMST recipients receive awards that include: a citation signed by the President of the United States, a paid trip to Washington. D.C., and a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation.
Full press release from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction