Post-PAEMST Saturday AM: Brunch with Jason Kamras

I was delighted to be able to get together with my former student (an AP PhyzMaster, no less), Jason Kamras, while I was in Washington, DC.

Jason grew up in Sacramento, where he attended Rio Americano and excelled in my AP Physics course. His name remains enshrined in Rio's Physics Hall of Fame as a top-scorer in our first-ever  competition in the AAPT's Physics Bowl. Rio's top-scorers bested our region/division that year.

He ended up teaching middle school math at John Philip Sousa Middle School in southeast Washington, DC. It turns out, he excelled at that, too.

So much so that he was named National Teacher of the Year (a program of the Council of Chief State School Officers) in 2005. An honor of that magnitude comes with some burdens; the title-holder spends a year in the media spotlight. No worries—Mr. Kamras handled it all with confidence.

He is now Chief of Human Capital for DC Public Schools, and is a key player in their leadership team. He's plying his skills toward making structural changes in the big picture, and I continue to be nothing but proud of him.

He treated my mom and me to brunch at Créme Cafe, a hip chicken-and-waffles place not far from the campus of Howard University. Delicious! And he gave some prints from his photography portfolio. See Kamras Photography for images. He's got a skilled eye.

I made sure to get a groupie pic before we said our goodbyes.

Photo by Jean Baird

PAEMST Week: Friday—The White House

I was up past my bedtime Thursday night, so Friday morning came early.

The business of the day began with walking from The Willard to The White House. Guests were invited to the public tour of the White House with awardees, to our herd was nearly 200 strong.

Touring The White House usually requires significant advance notice. Your name has to be on a list at the multiple security check points before you're allowed on the grounds. PAEMST awardees and their guests were given a somewhat special pass, but security was still tight.

Since our names were on a list, we had to queue in alphabetical order. Since we had queued the previous day alphabetically by state, my mind wandered to what sequencing options had not yet been leveraged. I joked that next, we would have to order ourselves by height. Note: This was outlandish speculation articulated for humorous value only.

We made it through the rigorous security checks and streamed into The White House. It was a museum-like experience, loaded with artifacts, photographs, portraits, and furnished rooms. I might not have been at my best for absorbing it all. Soon enough, we were out on the North Portico. Guests exited east, awardees gathered to the west to collect badges needed to get into the massive Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), where the Executive Branch gets its work done.

We gathered in a large conference room for a presentation from celebrated physicist, S. James Gates, Jr.

Next it was off to lunch in the EEOB's newly renovated Indian Treaty Room. The sign above the door read "LIBRARY," and no one knew why it was called the Indian Treaty Room. Before returning to our conference room, we heard from a few more important organizations.

Back in our EEOB conference room, we were invited to dig into the Department of Education's (ED) RESPECT project by some ED policy personnel. RESPECT is an ambitious, visionary plan to improve the state and status of public instruction in the United States. Much to like; little to dislike. When the ED folks asked for feedback, our group was understandably hesitant to volunteer (think of the whirlwind we'd been through over the past few daze days).

I jumped into the silence with an apologetic and tactful expression of doubt that such a plan could be implemented. I knew it wasn't the feedback that was hoped for, but my skepticism was sincere. Fortunately, the ice was broken and others jumped in to defend the plan.

We also got presentations from other important groups.

Next up was our photo-op with Dr. Jill Biden. We were told that Vice President, Joe Biden, would also partake in the photograph. Before we could enter the auditorium where the photo was to be taken, we were told we needed to line up from tallest to shortest. Yes, my morning joke became reality! What are you gonna do? It's part of the PAEMST ride.

We filed into a cozy, modern auditorium and arranged ourselves in tight formation on a set of risers on the stage. Then we waited for our dignitaries. I'm impressed with how well we behaved in tight formation on the risers.

They arrived and we got our photo. We also got encouraging and congratulatory words from fellow educator, Jill Biden. Joe followed with extended comments covering the state of the economy, the importance of STEM education, and his optimism for the future. He graciously stayed to shake hands with all awardees. While we had some level of disappointment from missing our photo-op with the President, it was nice that we got a personal greeting from the Vice President.

Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden Honor Nation's Top Science and Math Teachers

If you look closely, you can see me in the second photo and yes, I'm hayseed enough to point that out. I will post a link to the official photograph once it becomes available.

We walked back to The Willard and reconvened in its ballroom one last time for final words and good-byes. I made certain to get groupie shots with New York physics awardee, Frank Noschese, and California math awardee, Kentaro Iwasaki. (Click to embiggen.)

Some awardees were off directly following the closing session; some stayed one more night. A mighty storm blew through Friday night. It was short but intense—a narrow band of red that blew west to east on the radar map. It knocked out power to many neighborhoods in the DC area, but The Willard weathered the storm without apparent incident.

I hope that Dr. Nafeesa Owens and her team got some well-deserved rest after days of herding us cats. We weren't bad or unruly, but there were just so many of us. And the logistics of pulling all the recognition events off was non-trivial.

PAEMST Week: Thursday—NSF Day

National Science Foundation Day for PAEMST Awardees began with a 6:45am queue in the back lobby of The Willard. We boarded two NSF-bound busses, dividing by early-alpha and late-alpha states. This succeeded in deterring any Alabama vs. Wyoming shenanigans from breaking out.

Upon arrival at NSF's DC HQ, we got a tasty continental breakfast before posing for a group shot in NSF's airy atrium. I'll post the shot when I gain access to it. For now, here's the atrium.

There was a large PAEMST poster on display with this year's winners' faces scattered into a circle around the award logo.

Following remarks from Valentine Kass, Pamela O'Neil, and Cora Marrett, we had a nice talk from Nafeesa Owens, and a pithy preso from Northern California's own Einstein Fellow, Marc "Zeke" Kossover! I snapped this slide from his preso for posterity.

Next we hoofed it over to NSF's annex next door for three rounds of presentations, delivered Japanese-school style: sets of students remain in different classrooms while teachers move room to room.

Einstein Fellows Jean Pennycook and Pamela Truesdell told us about Research Experiences for Teachers. Akiko Elders and Jose Herrera from NSF told us about The Noyce Foundation, and Einstein Fellows Kathryn Culbertson, Camsie McAdams, and Aaron Schuertz told us about the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship.

There was a small level of distraction during these prsentations as this was the day that the Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act was delivered. Blocks away from us at the Supreme Court, demonstrators were demonstrating, and every media correspondent with a valid credential was on the scene waiting for the announcement. I know the California awardees were pleased with the ruling, but did not presume to know how Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, et al felt about it.

We had our pick of yummy Cosi box lunches to take with us as we headed into the interspaces of the NSF complex for informal talks with actual NSF scientists and mathematicians. We broke bread in small groups with these professionals, and talked about the challenges of STEM education.

There was then an interval reserved for catching a breath or meeting with elected representatives. I had made no attempt to intrude upon my representative or senators, assuming (rightly or wrongly) that they/their staffs had better things to do. I headed back to The Willard and snapped a few interior/exterior shots.

At 5:30pm the awardees queued for our walk to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, where we were to rehearse our Awards Ceremony before guests were admitted and seated.

My additional guests were my brother, Bryce, and his wife, Mary Butler. They drove 7 hours from Rochester, NY to attend the ceremony! And they drove 7 hours back the next day. I would not have asked that level of commitment from anyone, but I'm delighted they got a chance to take part in the event.

There was pomp and circumstance: bagpipe music played as the honorees entered the auditorium already filled with seated guests who were generous with their applause. If you'd been evading the magnitude of this award until this processional, chances are it caught up with you here. You were in the midst of friends and family, and the Secretary of Education was about to shake your hand while your other hand carried a personalized certificate signed by the President of the United States of America.

The PAEMST Program produced a simple but professional printed program for guests and awardees. There were kind words from NSF's Pamela O'Neil and Cora Marrett before an address from Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.

There is no history unless you record it, and here I am with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and NSF Deputy Director Cora Marrett at the Awards Ceremony.

And here is a close-up of the certificate I'm holding, signed by Barack Obama.

We also received a letter from the President. (As always, click to embiggen.)

The ceremony proceeded with each awardee being recognized and applauded and they crossed the stage, collected their documents, shook the hands of the dignitaries, and posed for their photograph.

A reception in the foyer of the auditorium followed, allowing us to mix, mingle, and bring our guests up to speed with the week's events.

One item to share with the disappointing news that we would not have a photo-op with President Obama the next day as tentatively scheduled. Colorado was on fire, and the President needed to pay a visit. Such are the uncertainties of Official Washington.

Instead we were to have Dr. Jill Biden who continues to teach through here tenure as Second Lady. The Presidential photo-op is never guaranteed, and those of us following the news knew on Wednesday that Mr. Obama was scheduled to visit the firefighting and relief efforts in Colorado on Friday. Nafeesa Owens made the unhappy announcement during our ceremony rehearsal.

There was no wallowing in misery among the awardees. We understood how things worked and there was nothing that could be done to change the reality of the situation. PAEMST recognition events happen at different times each year; there is no day, week, or month that comes with a guarantee the President won't be able to pose with PAEMST awardees. The 2012 PAEMST photo-op is the only one he's missed during his administration to this point.

Jean, Mary, Bryce, and I retired to a late dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill near The Willard. It seemed like the place to be, even at 10pm on a Thursday night. The food was great and the prices were ridiculously reasonable! No wonder there's always a crowd there.

We had a great dinner and chatted past midnight. I did not get to bed at a reasonable hour.

So endeth Day 2.

PAEMST Week: Wednesday—Activities at The Willard

Official activities began at 7:00am on Wednesday with registration in the foyer of The Willard InterContinental's downstairs ballroom. There we got our information packs and PAEMST name badges. Due to the security-minded nature of everything in DC, we were told it would be best if we put the badges on and never took them off. Or something like that.

The PAEMST awardee mingling began in earnest as we awaited breakfast. We soon learned to refer to ourselves by our state and discipline. "Hello, I'm Dean Baird, California Science."

We were all dressed for success since the official portrait photo shoot was to proceed throughout the morning. A two-minute time slot was allocated to each awardee, Although Wyoming's Chad Sharpe and I shared a slot. We thought maybe the plan was to get one shot with both of us together.

The photographer (whose name someone will remind me) was a kick. He worked us like putty and got amazing results. Photoshop is a powerful tool and the photographer clearly knows how to use it: I'm not nearly as good-looking as the guy pictured below.

During breakfast, we were introduced to our hosts. First and foremost was Nafeesa Owens. Hers was the name we had seen on the multiple communications dating back to February. She runs PAEMST as the Associate Program Director in the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL), National Science Foundation (NSF). She had the unenviable task of herding us cats over the next few days.

Others included Valentine Kass, NSF's DRL Program Director, Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Program Director of the NSF's Education and Human Resources (EHR), and Susan Akin and Kimberly Potter from ICF International, who coordinated the recognition events.

After breakfast, we had a delightful meet-and-greet session led by a group of Einstein Fellows. Our chance for our geographically disparate collection of awardees to get to know one another. I doubt I'm alone in remembering this as the highlight of the week.

We were segregated by discipline for lunch. Science teachers' lunch was hosted by the National Science Teachers' Association (NSTA) while math teachers' lunch was hosted by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Check out the lunch menu:

Science types were given a presentation about Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) from representatives of ACHIEVE and NSF. I've been involved in trying to digest this ambitious document for months, and my success has been limited. I tried to convey the "cowboy mentality" prevalent among the nations high school physics teachers to the presenters; not sure that I got my point across in the limited time we had.

The afternoon concluded with a discussion of public relations and interview techniques called, "Focus The Message." The challenge there was internalizing elements of a solution to a problem I had not yet faced. We may not have been at our sharpest at that point in the day.

We had a couple of hours to relax before heading off to a resplendent reception and dinner at the historic Decatur House on Lafayette Square near the White House.

Dinner was served on Obama Inaugural dinner plates. We enjoyed kind and enthusiastic words from past PAEMST Awardees Ruth Ruud, Kenneth Huff, David Kapolka, Conni Crittenden, Anita Bernhardt, and Diana Kasbaum. Each of them now heads a major education organization.

Our keynote speaker Sam Kass, White House Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives. (And Valentine Kass' son.) He's been instrumental in developing the My Plate element of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative. And he recently competed on the "Not My Job" segment of NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

My PAEMST guest was my mom, Jean. We snapped a couple of tourist shots of the North Portico of the White House on our walk back to The Willard.

So that was Day 1.

PAEMST Week: Tuesday—Travel and Arrival

I woke up Sacramento at oh dark thirty to catch 6:05am flight to Dallas-Fort Worth. From there it was off to Washington DC, where I caught up with my mother (my designated PAEMST guest). The flights were arranged through the PAEMST Recognition Program and included Priority Seating.

It was the first test of my spiffy new Pelican PCS283 detachable wheeled camera/courier bag. It performed like a champ.

We Blue Vanned it from Reagan International to The Willard InterContinental, where my sister had arranged a lovely welcome gift for us. She's so sweet! (And so were those ginormous cookies!)

Nest we set off in search of a nearby Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Finding it was less trivial than one might think. And they were closed when we got there, so we settled for Cusine du Quiznos.

We made a quick recon run to the White House and a clear view of the Washington Monument (to make sure they were really there). Then it was back to The Willard, where we happened to bump into none other than the illustrious Frank Noschese, himself. I was scruffy, tired, and not entirely oriented, but I knew enough to pull Frank into Hug Harbor! I hope he didn't mind.

Full agenda tomorrow, starting with registration, breakfast, and official portraits.

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Congratulates Two California Teachers on Prestigious National Honors

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today congratulated two California teachers who have been named by President Barack Obama as recipients of the prestigious 2011 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) award. The two teachers were among 97 educators named nationwide.

The California science winner is Dean Baird, a physics teacher at Sacramento’s Rio Americano High School in the San Juan Unified School District.

The California mathematics winner is Kentaro Iwasaki, a math teacher and chair of the Mathematics Department at San Francisco’s Mission High School in the San Francisco Unified School District.                                                          

"I’m proud and delighted to see two of California’s own honored by the President for dedication, talent, and hard work," said Torlakson. "They deserve our admiration and appreciation for their professional and personal efforts to encourage their students to pursue subjects that are so critical to the future of our state and our nation."

Baird has taught physics, computer science and electronics, and physical science since 1986 at Rio Americano High School. He is the recipient of numerous local, state, and national recognition awards. Baird also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science degree in instructional leadership in curriculum and instruction from National University. As part of the PAEMST application, Baird presented his "Why the Sky is Blue" video that actively explores a variety of alternative explanations through experimentation, demonstration, and discussion.

Iwasaki teaches math and serves as the Chair of the Mathematics Department at Mission High School, a high poverty school where 38 percent of its students are learning English. He not only teaches struggling students, but also teaches honors and Advanced Placement math courses, working to explain the most complex math topics in such a way that students can then become teachers of math themselves.

Recognition ceremonies for the 2011 Presidential Awardees will be held Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

PAEMST  is the highest recognition that a kindergarten through twelfth grade math or science teacher may receive for outstanding teaching in the United States. PAEMST was enacted by Congress in 1983 and authorizes the President each year to bestow up to 108 awards to math and science teachers from each of the 50 states and four U.S. jurisdictions including Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; Department of Defense Schools; and the U.S. territories. PAEMST awards alternate yearly between honoring primary and secondary teachers.

Since the program's inception, 84 California teachers have been named PAEMST recipients.


California Department of Education 25 June 2012 Press Release

Congratulations from Senator Boxer

California Senator Barbara Boxer sent a kind letter of congratulations for my selection as a national PAEMST finalist. Click to embiggen.

My PAEMST Application Timeline

March 2011
My mentor, Steve Keith, nominates me for the 2011 Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. This time, I acknowledge the nomination and register on the PAEMST application website. (When Steve Keith nominated me in 2009, I did not register. Luckily for me, Keith wasn't going to take "no" for an answer. In faux inductor terminology, his insistence was greater than my reluctance.)

March/April 2011
I complete the application with the assistance of Rio's Principal, Brian Ginter, my evaluating administrator, Vice Principal Vanessa Adolphson, my protégé (former student extraordinaire now physics teacher extraordinaire), Jesuit's Jessica Scheimer, my other mentor, Conceptual Physics author, Paul G. Hewitt, and my 2010-11 Physics students (especially videographer Amir Khazaieli and my 6th period class).

May 2011
I was sweating the finishing details of the application package as the news of Osama Bin Laden's demise was breaking. The bulky package was sent to Jim Miller at the California Department of Education for state review.

My participation in the process is now done. It is left to others to decide. This is also where I enter the realm of the unknown. When will the state decide who moves forward to national consideration? When will national winners be announced?

9 June 2011
I get a call from California's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, congratulating me on being one of three state finalists in science for the PAEMST. Total shocker! But I'm smooth and professional with the guy, acting as if I'm always ready to take a call from the State Sup and advise him as needed. But I was floating. The phone call occurred on the penultimate day of school, so seniors were done. And it happened as I was meeting Paul and Lillian Hewitt at the train station; they were in Sacramento for a brief visit.

Details in this Blog of Phyz post

Every Single Day From June 9, 2011 Through June 11, 2012
I wonder if I'll earn recognition as a national finalist. Yes: Every day. I'm not proud of that, but I'm not going to lie.

October 2011
The CSTA and CDE organize a nice awards breakfast as part of CSTA's conference in Pasadena. CDE's Jim Miller assures the awardees that this year's applications were unusually voluminous and unusually strong. Many otherwise excellent candidates had to be turned away.

February 2012
I am asked to grant permission to the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Name Check Program (FBI NNCP) so that they may verify my identity. No worries. I presumed (rightly or wrongly) that all state finalists had to submit to this level of scrutiny.

May 2012
I am asked to provide a head shot photo, a brief professional biography, a response to "What does the Presidential Award mean to you?," my cell phone number and whom PAEMST could share that number with. I begin work on this blog, but keep the blog under wraps.

5 June 2012
I am told to clear my calendar for the end of June to accommodate possible travel to Washington, DC.

11 June 2012
The announcement is made.

2013
I believe it.

Clever as I might think I am, I do not know where along the preceding timeline I should have presumed I was a national finalist. A long time passed between 9 June 2011 and late February 2012. I didn't really entertain the possibility until the May request for additional information. But my doubts remained alive and kicking. The 5 June notice killed many (though not all) those doubts.

The Winner Is...

Me! (Well, me and 96 other teachers from across the nation.) Specifically, I am the winning science teacher from the great state of California.

White House Press Release

National Science Foundation Fact Sheet

Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching
Website Information about the program
Recognition Page Awardees • Agenda • Registration & Logistics • Logistics
2011 Recipients List All 97 PAEMST honorees with reflections and professional biographies
Personal Biography Page Me!

Devotchka instrumental from Little Miss Sunshine

In large part, the announcement did nothing to change anything about the day. I knew it would be incumbent upon me to share the news to anyone who might wish to know. Sure, it would have been nice if confetti fell from the ceiling when I walked into school's administration building, but that thing's been busted since the '90s.

The one "intrusion" of an altered reality was a flurry of email notices from Twitter. I have a Twitter account to stay informed about things and stuff when I'm at TAM (The Amazing Meeting) or AAPT Summer Meetings. And I'm pretty sure I'm not even doing that right. Outside those meetings, I really don't tweet. So I felt bad: all these kind folks following me, and me not being much of a tweeter. But that did nothing to diminish the elation of the day.