MONTAGUE — Two Franklin County residents who teach math and science have received the nation’s highest teaching award in the kindergarten to sixth grade category.
Math teacher Karen Schweitzer of Montague and science teacher John Heffernan of Conway have been named among the country’s 213 teachers to receive the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching.
They both work at the Anne T. Dunphy School in Williamsburg.
Winners were chosen from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and the Department of Defense schools for the children of U.S. servicemen and women stationed at military bases.
“The recipients of this award are integral to ensuring our students are equipped with critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are vital to our Nation’s success,” said President Barack Obama in a statement. “As the United States continues to lead the way in the innovation that is shaping our future, these excellent teachers are preparing students from all corners of the country with the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills that help keep us on the cutting-edge.”
All of the winners are invited to attend an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 8 and they’ll each receive a $10,000 prize from the National Science Foundation.
Schweitzer has spent the last 26 years at the Dunphy School, where she currently teaches third grade. She said she approaches math teaching by fostering a “growth mind-set” in her students that encourages them to never give up and push through hard problems to success.
She said she’s convinced that every child can learn and succeed in mathematics, and her goal is to develop mathematical understanding and fluency together.
“They go hand in hand, and I’ve been thinking a lot over the last few years about the kids who learned to persevere and those who did not,” Schweitzer said Tuesday, taking a moment away from setting up her classroom for the year. “In terms of thinking and working hard, in keeping going — that, I think, has a lot more to do with success than any innate ability.”
She works daily with her students to reinforce their understanding of how making mistakes can help them learn more effectively, and how persevering through difficult times can teach them more than just learning procedural approaches to math problems.
“When kids encounter novel or unique problems and they haven’t learned that growth mind-set and just look at it in the traditional way, then those great math skills don’t serve them very well,” she said. “The work is that I’m not telling kids what to do, per say, but I’m supporting them by asking them questions that get them to think about what they know and apply it.”
Meanwhile, Schweitzer has been heavily involved in professional development for years, teaching mathematical methods at the University of Massachusetts and Westfield State University.
“I’m incredibly honored and very proud, I feel pretty confident that I got the award based on a lot of work I’ve been doing over the last 26 years, and I’ve done that with a great cohort of people and feel grateful to all my colleagues,” said Schweitzer. “No teacher who teaches well enough to get an award has gotten there on her own.”
To qualify for the award, Schweitzer said she had to submit a 12-page prompt-and-response paper, another 15-pages of supplementary writing and a 45-minute, unedited, uncut video of her teaching, then explain her approach to that class.
Heffernan has been the pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade technology teacher at Dunphy for 12 years.
Previously, he taught third grade in Amherst, for seven years; was an educational technology consultant for the Collaborative for Educational Services and a Principal Software Engineer for Digital Equipment Corp.
Heffernan’s passion is elementary engineering education, according to a profile on the award program’s website. He believes in nurturing young children’s natural engineering instincts throughout elementary school to create the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math workforce of the future.
He has presented sessions on technology, science, and engineering education at numerous conferences and is a co-author of an upcoming article, “Robotics as Computational Manipulatives,” in the Journal of Research in Technology Education.
He is also the author of “Elementary Engineering: Sustaining the Natural Engineering Instincts of Children, and a member of the LEGO Education Advisory Panel.
He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Tufts University, a master’s of education in elementary education from Lesley University, and an Education Specialist degree from the UMass Amherst.
He is currently completing a doctorate in STEM education from UMass. He is certified in both elementary and kindergarten to 12 technology education.
The Recorder was unable to reach Heffernan for comment by press time Tuesday.
You can reach Tom Relihan at:
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