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Bilingual, five-subject SEP teacher wins Golden
Apple
By RICI HALLSTRAND
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Mario Goday-Gonzalez and
Dr. Nancy Hutchison visitt in the Science Education Partnership
lab.
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Could you teach five subjects in two languages in a multicultural
classroom?
Mario Godoy-Gonzalez, a six-year participant in the Hutch's
Science Education Partnership and a teacher at Royal City High
School, does this every day.
He also advises students, arranges field trips, coaches soccer,
leads a cub scout pack, participates in faculty leadership and
writes funding proposals.
Godoy-Gonzalez will receive the 2000 Golden Apple Award for
Excellence in Education at a ceremony in January.
Sponsored by KCTS-TV and Pemco Financial Services, the award
honors exceptional educators and programs in Washington state.
Five educators and five programs were selected from nearly
200 nominees.
Royal city teacher
Godoy-Gonzalez teaches math, physical science, biology and
history, as well as two levels of English, in bilingual Spanish/English
classes in Royal City, an agricultural town midway between Moses
Lake and the Columbia River.
Most of his students are Hispanic, and his bilingual instruction
prepares them to succeed in English-only classrooms.
Godoy-Gonzalez receives support for his science teaching and
classroom activities through SEP, which was awarded the Golden
Apple Award in 1998. As a participant in SEP workshops in 1996
and 1998, Godoy-Gonzalez spent several weeks working with other
teachers and scientist mentors in Seattle.
Environmental honor
The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation
recently named Godoy-Gonzalez as a winner of its national achievement
award, and earlier this year Godoy-Gonzalez was named Migrant
Teacher of the Year by the state Superintendent for Public Instruction.
This year, Godoy-Gonzalez also won a Michael Jordan Fundamentals
Grant, which will support the purchase of additional classroom
equipment.
With SEP teacher Diane Lashinsky, Godoy-Gonzalez is developing
a unit on biotechnology to present at the next national conference
of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans
in Science.
[Dr. Rici Hallstrand is program manager for the Hutch Science
Education Partnership.]
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