Enthusiasm, passion for science are key to teacher's state award

GREENHILL - Rogers fourth-grade teacher Russ White is anything but predictable.

He may come to school wearing a fire suit to coincide with his science lesson on motion and design or he may be the "black hole" to help ease the students into a mindset for astronomy. Whatever the unit of study, White does what it takes to teach it.

In his 12th year of teaching at Rogers Elementary, White said educating children and teaching them to question the universe never gets old.

It's the combination of his enthusiasm for teaching, his unique approach in the classroom and work ethic that recently earned White the 2009 Outstanding Alabama Elementary Science Teacher of the Year award by the Alabama Science Teachers Association.

White accepted his award recently at the ASTA fall conference at McWayne Science Center in Birmingham.

He said he believes his own natural curiosity for science and why things happen as they do transfers to his students.

"I'm committed to teaching hands-on science every day," said White, who is also certified in the Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative. "I have a passion for science and learning and I work hard to pass that on to the kids I teach. I'm excited about what I do, and the students pick up on that."

Co-worker Amy Jones nominated White for the award. Jones said White "consistently strives to give students his absolute best and is masterful at taking the most difficult concepts and demonstrating them in such simple terms that fourth-graders can fully understand them."

White teaches five major units a year, with each lasting about eight weeks: motion and design, astronomy, physics of sound, electric circuits and animal studies.

He believes his students must be allowed to make mistakes in order to learn.

"Sometimes I have to catch myself from saying, 'no, do it this way,' " he said. "The students need to find out for themselves what works and doesn't work. That's how they learn."

Part of his classroom strategy is to incorporate real-life experiences into his teaching, such as the time that he was struck by lightning.

"I talk a lot about lightning in the classroom, and my personal experience certainly gets them interested in learning about it," he said. "I use whatever I can in the classroom to break it down and connect with the students."

White's principal, David Matthews, said White's award shines a positive light on the school as a whole.

"Russ is a tremendous teacher with an incredible work ethic, but his award just conveys a really positive message to the public, too," Matthews said. "He is very deserving of this award."

Lisa Singleton-Rickman can be reached at 740-5735 or at lisa.singleton-rickman@TimesDaily.com.