Tom Robinson Earns Teaching Award from Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
Information contributed by Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and supplemented by LakeChelanNow Staff
Local resident and former Chelan High School Math and Physics Teacher, Tom Robinson, recently earned high honors from the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. Robinson, affectionately known to Chelan students as T-Rob, taught at CHS from 2007-2015.
In an interview with LakeChelanNow, Robinson indicated he’s always had a desire to determine a way to break the most complicated math concepts into something more easily grasped. This culminated in 2015 with the publication of his book “Fibonacci Zoo” in which advanced mathematics is presented through the simple story of a boy who goes to the zoo.
According to Robinson, the book introduces kids to “really cool math stuff in a very simple way.”
Robinson’s book is available in both English and Spanish, and although he doesn’t speak Spanish, Robinson said he read the English version of the book at Manson Schools last year and a translator read the same book in Spanish. “It seemed to make sense,” he said with a laugh. “So I’m guessing the translation was good.”
In addition to his classroom teaching and now book-writing career, Robinson has served as an online instructor for the past 18 years which lead to this recognition.
Below is the award information LakeChelanNow received from Johns Hopkins CTY.
Tom Robinson, an instructor at Apex Learning Virtual School in Seattle, Wash., was one of 10 teachers from around the country honored recently by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) for excellence in teaching students with advanced academic abilities.
Robinson was honored during the Sarah D. Barder Fellowship Conference, held Feb. 23-24 at The Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif. This was the 30th anniversary of the conference, which brings new and past fellows from around the country together to share ideas and best practices about educating bright students.
“CTY’s mission is to discover, engage, and challenge even the brightest students to aim higher and learn more every day,” said CTY executive director Elaine Tuttle Hansen. “The Sarah D. Barder Award celebrates educators who share this commitment and documents the impact of teaching for high achievement on young people who often struggle to find the opportunities and encouragement they need.”
Robinson is a National Board-certified teacher with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Washington and a master’s degree in secondary mathematics from Western Washington University. As an online instructor, he understands that his exceptionally bright students are often “caught” between their academic ages and their physical and emotional ages. He seeks to give them a safe space to learn, be curious, and ask questions. Cora, the eighth grader who nominated Robinson for the award, recalls a time she was ready to give up on her online course after earning a low score on the midterm. Robinson encouraged her not to give up and helped her review the lessons via email and video chat. “After his huge help, I did much better on the final and completed the course with a passing grade,” she says. “He taught me much more than the course alone could have.”
This year’s Sarah D. Barder Fellowship Conference theme was “Whole Teacher, Whole Child,” and the program emphasized how to promote a healthy classroom. Teacher honorees shared stories about challenges that stand in the way of a healthy learning environment, such as students’ increasing dependence on devices and its effect on their ability to focus on schoolwork; poverty and other household stressors students bring to school with them; and the expectation for teachers to be in constant contact with families. Expert speakers offered techniques through which to manage these challenges through empathy, mindfulness, self-care, stress reduction, and more.
CTY director of research and conference co-host Amy Shelton said the biggest takeaway for teachers was that supporting each other and taking care of themselves is as important as their interactions with students.
Nominations for the Sarah D. Barder fellowships come from students in CTY’s summer and online courses who live in California, Nevada, and Maryland. Nominated teachers are invited to submit an essay describing their teaching philosophy, and a panel of Johns Hopkins educators then selects educators from this group for recognition as Sarah D. Barder Fellows.
Sarah D. Barder, an educator, philanthropist, parent, and friend of CTY, endowed the fellowship in 1988 as a way of recognizing talented teachers of academically advanced students. More than 480 educators have been honored as Sarah D. Barder Fellows to date. For more information about the fellowship, visit cty.jhu.edu/news/events/barder/.
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About the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
A nonprofit at one of the nation’s premiere universities, CTY identifies academic talent in the world’s brightest K-12 learners and supports their growth with accredited summer, online, and family programs, services, and resources designed to meet their needs.
