Thursday, June 14, 2007

'Teaching Excellence' award given to Perry teacher

by Carolyn Kaberline

One thing that Kasi Packard tries to teach all her students is that math is more than what they think it is. To do this the Perry-Lecompton Middle School math teacher uses a wide variety of hands-on techniques to capture student interest and give her students the encouragement and opportunity they need to succeed.

Because of her ability in the classroom and her dedication to teaching, Packard has been named the 2007 recipient of the Doris and Dale Hupe Teaching Excellence Award. This award is given to “the outstanding teacher in the district each year, particularly the teacher who most motivates students to want to learn and obtain more education.”

“My mother left the funds for the award in her will,” Dennis Hupe said. Although his mother provided for the funds, Hupe said the USD 343 Endowment Association was in charge of setting up the specifics.

Under the procedures set up by the Endowment Association, the staff in each building in the district is allowed to nominate either one or two teachers on the basis of their ability to motivate students to learn and to obtain more education. The nominees are then asked to respond in writing to the question, “How do you motivate students to want to learn and obtain more education?”

From there, a selection committee consisting of the senior class president, a parent-teacher organization representative from each school, and the superintendent meets with the nominees to ask each a short list of questions. The announcement of the winner is made at the Staff Appreciation and Retirement Luncheon held the last day of the school year.

In addition to the prestige involved in winning, the recipient also receives a cash award to be used as he or she sees fit. This year’s award was $1,615.

“Both of my parents served on the school board,” Hupe said, “and my mother always thought that teachers were never honored as they should have been for all their hard work. She felt that this would be one way to help with that.”

Packard says she was surprised to win the award, but tentatively plans on putting “a big chunk of the money into her children’s Learning Quest fund.” She also says that some of it will be used to fund a fun weekend for her family— husband, Nolan, seventh-grade daughter, Kristine, and second-grade son, Ty — “perhaps at Great Wolf Lodge.”

Originally from the Ozawkie and Meriden area, Packard graduated from Jefferson West High School before attending Emporia State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1993 and is primarily certified to teach fifth- through ninth-grade math. She is currently working on her master’s of education degree in curriculum and instruction.

“I really enjoy teaching math, and that’s what I’d like to do,” Packard said as she explained her reason for getting her master’s degree in an instructional area instead of one in administration. “This will allow me to be better at what I do.”

While Packard has taught for 14 years altogether—three at Coronado Middle School in Kansas City and 11 in USD 343, she believes her most memorable teaching experience occurred this year while she was teaching in both the middle school and high school.

“I’ve enjoyed seeing students as eighth graders grow up and change for better as ninth graders,” she said. “I like to think I was a part of helping them wrap up their elementary school career and begin high school.”

While Packard is currently teaching eighth-grade pre-algebra and algebra as well as ninth-grade algebra, she says that geometry is her favorite thing to teach. “It opens itself up to hands on activities.”

Regardless of the subject, most of Packard’s classes make use of hands-on activities. Some of those activities include making geometric figures out of straws and gumdrops and using the new tile floor in her room to teach such concepts as slopes. She’s even been known to incorporate the twins in her classroom in algebraic formulas.

When it comes to state assessments, Packard believes in making “stressful things as unstressful as possible.” That’s meant coming up with a State Assessment Survivor game for her students. This past year each of her classes was broken into tribes and had to compete in survivor-type simulations, which made preparing for the assessments both fun and memorable.

Packard is also a big believer in cooperative learning, but “not so much that it loses value.” She also believes one big thing that’s helped her present math concepts to her students is that the PTO bought each math teacher an LCD projector. “I’ve been able to make PowerPoint and multimedia presentations so can present materials in more depth.”

Outside of the classroom, Packard also stays busy. She is the School Improvement Committee chairwoman for her building, the district math chair, and the District Curriculum and Staff Development co-chair. That’s all in addition to coaching the high school cross country team and the middle school track team among other sports; next year she’ll be taking on coaching duties for the high school junior varsity basketball team as well.

As she accepted the award, Packard said that long time USD 343 teacher Bill Culver was instrumental in helping her get her current job. “He saw my dad and told him I should be interviewed. Now they can’t get rid of me,” she said with a chuckle. And that’s something the Perry-Lecompton district is no doubt thankful for.