Lee Werner has been selected as a winner of the 2001 Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished High School Mathematics Teaching.
By: Gwen Runkle
Lee Werner, a math teacher at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, has been selected as a winner of the 2001 Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished High School Mathematics Teaching.
Only 24 teachers in the United States and Canada have received this recognition.
Ms. Werner received a cash prize of $350, a one-year membership in the Mathematical Association of America, 20 subscriptions to "Math Horizons" for distribution to her high school students and an award-winner pin and certificate.
"It is very nice and I was very surprised," she said. "I first found out about the award in June when I started receiving congratulatory letters. I was a bit confused and said, ‘What are they sending me this for?’ ""
Ms. Werner said she was nominated for the award by three students she had in her ninth-grade accelerated geometry program a few years ago.
Andy Coppock, Ian Le and James Wray nominated her for the award after placing among the top 60 test scores of the American Mathematics Contest, an international test given by the Mathematics Association of America.
The Edyth May Sliffe Award program is designed to recognize and reward outstanding teachers for their efforts in the development of mathematical talents of high school students.
Ms. Werner said she has not been able to get in touch with the students to say thanks, but wishes she could.
Ms. Werner, 46, has taught a variety of math classes in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district for the past 11 years, but said geometry is by far her favorite.
"I love geometry because geometry can be a real hands-on course," she said. "Students do a lot of discovery and use the computers."
Prior to coming to West Windsor-Plainsboro, she taught math for 14 years at Tully Central District School in upstate New York.
She attended Syracuse University, earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree.
She grew up in South Brunswick and discovered she wanted to be a math teacher in high school.
"When I was in high school, I started to tutor other kids and I think that’s when I knew what I really wanted to do," she said.
Ms. Werner now lives with her husband in Levittown, Pa.
"This award is great. My family was really excited and I am very thankful," she said.