The Lawton Elementary School all-purpose room was abuzz last Friday with cheering students and teachers, much to the surprise of fourth grade teacher Peter Hubbard - especially when he realized the signs and cheers were for him.
A stunned Hubbard stepped up to the front of the room to receive a Symetra Heroes in the Classroom award among cheerful hoots and an auditorium full of students holding signs that said, "We love Mr. Hubbard" and "Way to go Mr. Hubbard."
"I feel totally surprised," Hubbard said after receiving the award. "I'm in shock. This is so totally cool."
Apart from the award, Hubbard received two tickets to a Seahawks game with VIP sideline experience where he will be recognized for his contribution on the JumboTron with two other teachers during the next home game. Symetra also gave Hubbard $350 to buy school supplies at Office Max.
Each Seahawks season 24 teachers in the K-12 Seattle Public School District are recognized for four criteria: exemplary instructional skills, outstanding teacher-leadership skills, innovative instruction that encourages all students to succeed and proactive parent/guardian outreach.
"In addition to what he has done in the classroom, he has devoted an immense amount of time to environmental issues. He is incredible," said fellow teacher Mike Howard. "This is a well-deserved recognition for all you've done for this city and for our schools."
Hubbard has led several environmental education programs, and helped Lawton become the first school in the Seattle School District to be a Washington Green School - a program that launched this fall to promote sustainability awareness in the classroom, and for the school's carbon footprint.
Hubbard also helped start Lawton's Compost Lunch Program and organize Seattle Green Schools - a network for community and district members to share ideas about and promote environmental education. This year, Hubbard led his fourth-graders in a project designing solar-powered vehicles and he's also working on integrating a service-learning element to this year's World Culture's Night - in which each classroom presents after spending the school year learning about a different country in Africa.
"My classroom is Kenya and I'd been thinking, 'Was there a way to combine some sort of service project with our study of Africa to give a new twist?'" Hubbard said.
So, Hubbard is trying to launch a school wide KIVA project where each classroom would fundraise and then choose an entrepreneur in the country they studied to lend the money to. As the world's first person-to-person micro-lending program, KIVA connects lenders from more developed countries to entrepreneurs in less developed parts of the globe. As the entrepreneur's business grows, the lender is repaid.
"It gives kids a kind of personal contact, a little window into life," Hubbard said. "It's also a way to concretely reach out. It's nice to be able to, besides just studying it, try and something helpful."
As a teacher in the Seattle School District since 1986, and at Lawton since 1995, Hubbard hopes education becomes more integrated with the realities of the surrounding world and local communities.
"I feel so lucky to be at Lawton," Hubbard said. "The staff has a progressive view. There's a nice balance of traditional and also being open to new ideas. It really has allowed me to develop my potential as a teacher."[[In-content Ad]]
