‘Teacher of Excellence’ brings subject to life
Published: July 28, 2006
Even if the subject was merely combining numbers to come up with a total, Homer High School math instructor Francie Roberts would make it come alive for her students. So says her former student, Homer High School 10th-grader Clinton Edminster.
“It could be addition and she’d be so enthusiastic,” said Edminster who was in Roberts’ geometry class during his freshman year.
To show his appreciation, Edminster nominated Roberts for a BP Exploration (Alaska) Teacher of Excellence award. Roberts also was nominated by coworker Dianne Spence, who teaches United States and world history at HHS.
The nominations did the trick. Roberts, as well as six other teachers in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, were recognized for their positive impact on peninsula students.
“I nominated her for several reasons,” Spence said. “One, as a fellow teacher she has always been a strong voice for teachers. She’s incredibly supportive of coworkers.”
As a parent, Spence had another reason to appreciate Roberts’ teaching ability.
“She was my son’s teacher and motivated him like nobody else,” Spence said. “He was always very comfortable in her classes.”
According to the school grapevine, Spence knows she and Edminster aren’t the only ones that think highly of Roberts.
“Teachers tend to hear a lot of student comments about other teachers, whether they want to or not, and I’ve never heard a negative word about Francie from students or teachers,” Spence said.
Ron Keffer, HHS principal, also had high praise for Roberts.
“She is one of the very best teachers I’ve ever worked with,” Keffer said. “When kids get into her classroom, they understand what they’re doing. The kids just love her class, love what she does with them and they really work hard for her. When you get kids wanting to please you and work that hard to try to please you in a math class, boy, you’re really doing the job.”
Roberts, who has been a math instructor at HHS for 14 years, considers teaching her second career. Prior to that, she worked as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service for 18 years.
“Math is an interesting subject. It’s the language of science and science is important in our world today,” Roberts said. “You have to understand math to help with the problems of the world.”
Seeing the connection between meteorology and math, Roberts said, “Think of global warming. Everything we know about weather utilizes mathematics.”
Stepping into the area of technology, Roberts said, “You can buy a software program today that you can talk to your computer and it will write down what you say. That’s all done with mathematics.”
As Edminster recognized, Roberts uses her own enthusiasm to inspire her students.
“I think you have to really like what you’re doing. If you don’t like it, it doesn’t work. I just think (math) is fun and there are a lot of fun things you can do with mathematics in a classroom,” she said. “I would never say that all learning is exciting and fun. Sometimes you just have to learn it to learn it, but I keep trying to make it fun.”
BP Exploration (Alaska) introduced the Teachers of Excellence program in Anchorage and Fairbanks in 1996, and later extended it to include the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the Kenai Peninsula. Recognizing teachers for their outstanding efforts at the elementary, junior and senior high school levels in private as well as public schools, the program gives honorees a monetary award and plaque.
Nomination automatically qualifies the teachers for the Teacher of the Year Award, with one named for each of the four areas.
The Kenai Peninsula 2006 BP Teacher of the Year is Mike Druce of Soldotna High School. Other Teachers of Excellence from the Kenai Peninsula include James Bennett, Mountain View Elementary School; Wayne Clark, Seward High School; Lynn Dusek, Redoubt Elementary School; Barbara Ralston, Sears Elementary School; and Kathleen Thompson, Soldotna Ele-mentary School.
Roberts used her financial award of $500 to buy a piece of interactive equipment for her classroom. With it, a student can remain at his or her desk and solve a math problem on a surface that has a wireless connection to a board in front of the classroom, on which the steps are displayed for the benefit of the entire class.
It isn’t just her love of math or teaching that adds a spark to Roberts’ classroom style.
“I love teaching high school kids,” Robert said. “Some people sort of stay way from them, but their energy is very, very communicable. I enjoy high school kids a lot.”
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