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Home > Features > Dewey Gottlieb: Award-Winning Achievement
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Dewey Gottlieb: Award-Winning Achievement
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by DavidCarmody
Associate Director, Regional Consultant Recruitment and Endorsement
The College Board
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The World Beyond Oahu
Leaving Hawaii is very difficult, whether you live there or vacation there. But Dewey Gottlieb II knows that the rest of the world is important, too, and impresses that upon his students in Pearl City, Hawaii. Gottlieb is a winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, is Hawaii's first National Board Certified teacher in mathematics, and is the current Leeward District Teacher of the Year. On October 14, the state superintendent appeared at his school, announcing that Gottlieb also had won the 2003 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award, which comes with a prize of $25,000. He will be honored at a statewide reception, as well as the National Educator Awards in Washington, D.C.
Gottlieb teaches at Pearl City High School, which is also the school he attended. He grew up on Oahu, and before high school, he didn't have much motivation to attend college or leave the islands. But his teachers at Pearl City, through their caring and dedication, elevated his view of himself and of his potential. He watched them making such an important difference and noted that they loved their jobs, so he decided to become a teacher.
An important decision for Gottlieb was leaving Hawaii to attend college. He studied at the University of Dayton (Ohio) and taught in Ohio for three years following graduation. He then returned to Hawaii, where he has been teaching at Pearl City High School ever since. Gottlieb notes that students in Ohio are, in general, much like students in Hawaii, but because of the distance, many Hawaiian students don't think about educational or career options on the mainland.
Creating a One-to-One Relationship
Standing at his doorway as students enter, Gottlieb greets each one individually, shaking hands or speaking to the student by name. This reduces both absenteeism and behavior problems by helping to create a one-to-one relationship with each student. Noreen Tavares, Pearl City's math curriculum coordinator, says, "He is innovative in lesson planning while maintaining rigor," and he "treats his students with respect and honors differences in learning styles."
Gottlieb also tries to develop in each student a connection to the mathematics. Instead of sitting through lectures, his students are usually working on activities and questions that will allow them to construct a deeper personal understanding. Gottlieb, of course, steers the classes and refines their learning, but he feels that they learn more when they develop individual meanings. He also, when possible, brings in speakers who can help students understand how the content they study is used outside of the classroom. His pre-algebra classes hear from a financial educator about credit and interest, and a meteorologist visits his precalculus classes, explaining how studying trends and data create more accurate weather prediction. Gerald Suyama, principal of Pearl City High School, says, "He constantly looks for innovative ways to reach his students whether they are in his pre-algebra class or his calculus class."
AP Calculus: A New Challenge
This is Gottlieb's twelfth year teaching and his second with AP Calculus. He loves the course and finds his second year very different from the first. While, like any first-year AP teacher, he spent a lot of time in the beginning getting acquainted with the material, he now feels he is more able to let students discover many of the ideas in the course, with less formal lecturing from him, resulting in deeper understanding. He has attended the 2002 and 2003 AP Calculus Summer Institutes in Honolulu with Gail Duering and Cathy Want, and says, "They were both excellent teachers and great resources." He also gets great use out of the AP Calculus Electronic Discussion Group and AP Central.
Gottlieb believes strongly in the role of teachers in each other's professional development. He credits his colleagues at Pearl City with supporting him and helping him grow as a teacher, and he believes that every teacher gains expertise by sharing ideas with peers. Hawaiian teachers face a unique problem in that their physical isolation makes exchange of ideas much more difficult. In the future, Gottlieb would like to create a network of these teachers, facilitating their growth using each other as resources. Principal Suyama notes, "He was a natural leader in school, when he was here as a student, and he continues to lead through example for the rest of the faculty regardless of age."
Gottlieb's future will be great whatever he chooses to do. He has considered going into administration or university teaching but acknowledges, "My heart is in the classroom." He has not decided how to spend the Milken Family Foundation award money, but he might use some for travel, some for professional development, and some for a nest egg or investment.
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