Montville Teacher Receives Presidential Award
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, April 14-After a decade of teaching elementary students in Connecticut, a Montville teacher received one of the nation’s highest honors in teaching Thursday.
Joseph DiGarbo, a fourth-grade math teacher at Mohegan Elementary School, received the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching at a ceremony in Washington.
“This whole week has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” DiGarbo said before the awards ceremony Thursday. “I’m representing a lot of people from Connecticut and all of their teaching.”
DiGarbo, 33 was one of 95 teachers from across the country who received the award and the only one from Connecticut to receive the award for teaching math.
“It’s an honor, a definite honor, to be Connecticut’s representative,” he said before the awards ceremony.
The award was established by Congress in 1983 to honor outstanding math and science teachers. This year’s awardees received a citation from President George W. Bush commending them for “embodying excellence in teaching, for devotion to the learning needs of students and for upholding the high standards that exemplify American education at its finest.”
DiGarbo, a graduate of the University of Connecticut, has been teaching at Mohegan Elementary since 1996. He is the school’s first faculty member to receive the Presidential Award. He said he encourages students to be independent learners and often uses games to teach students math.
“They want to work and try to solve some problems and be able to come out with a solution.if you make the learning fun,” he said.
DiGarbo and other recipients spent the week in Washington participating in professional development programs, including meeting Bill Nye, the host of a television science program for children.
“It was an amazing week, and to meet 94 other award winners from across the country was the best experience,” DiGarbo said. “It means a lot to the teaching profession.”
The awardees also met Bush at the White House Thursday. The president congratulated the group and posed for photos, DiGarbo said.
Presidential awardees receive $10,000 from the National Science Foundation and professional gifts such as overhead projects from corporate donors.
DiGarbo said he wasn’t sure what he will do with his award money but is considering “furthering my own education so I can transfer that art over to my students.”
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