Past Awardees
The 2011 NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence Recipient
Kathy Steinhoff
Math Teacher
Jefferson Junior High School
Columbia, MO
Missouri NEA Awardee
Kathy Steinhoff begins her class with a video she previously recorded on the University of Missouri campus. She stands in front of large, concrete columns—relics from the Old Academic Hall that burned to the ground in 1892. “How much concrete is needed to make exact replicas of these six columns?” she asks. Finding the answer is tonight’s homework.
Back to live action, Steinhoff quickly uses response 'clickers' to assess how much the students have retained from previous lessons. She then leads her students in a hands-on investigation with two different sizes of soda cans—one is slightly taller and thinner than the other is. Students hypothesize about the differences in volume and apply the formulas to prove or disprove their predictions. Only then do they peel off the tape that covers the answers on the cans.
Steinhoff honed her practice by earning National Board Certification in Adolescent and Young Adulthood Mathematics in 1998 and renewing in 2007. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1987 and a Master’s Degree in 1996