'Aikahi teacher gains national honor
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
A teacher at Aikahi Elementary School who plans her lessons around a garden has been selected as a Disney's American Teacher Awards honoree.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
Pauline Jacroux, a first-grade teacher, is one of 32 teachers nationwide selected from more than 185,000 nominees.
Stepha Doyle, 6, a first-grader at Aikahi Elementary School, searches for earthworms with her teacher, award-winner Pauline Jacroux.
She will receive a $10,000 award. An additional $5,000 will go to Aikahi Elementary.
A former student anonymously nominated Jacroux for the award. "I have no idea whether they're still in this school or if they've moved forward," Jacroux said. "It's just an honor."
Jacroux has taught since 1984 and has spent all but one of those years teaching first-graders.
"They come in not knowing too much at the beginning of the year and they learn so much by the time they leave," she said. "I love their view of the world. They're old enough to tease. You can kind of train them not to be as needy as they think they should be. You can teach them to tie their own shoes."
In July, Jacroux will fly to Los Angeles, where the 32 teachers will be honored. Teachers and their principals also will attend a workshop in October at Walt Disney World, where they will share their creative teaching practices.
Jacroux has used a garden as a classroom tool for several years, teaching students about biological diversity, life cycles and habitats as they plant and care for vegetables, fruits and flowers.
"A lot of these kids don't know that potatoes don't come from McDonald's," she said.
When students planted seeds from their Halloween pumpkin one year and got a vine and beautiful flowers but no pumpkins, they learned the difference between male and female flowers. When a dog attacked the classroom guinea pig in the garden, the students learned about death.
Jacroux uses the garden to combine art and science.
"They have to be good observers," she said. "I don't want them to draw a lollipop tree. I want a tree with roots and branches and bumps and ants crawling on it."
Jacroux piloted and uses DASH, a developmental inquiry-based science program that teaches using themes and integrates with other subject areas. She also uses Mathematics Their Way, a developmental math program, and supplements it with her own lessons in geometry, clock time and problem solving.
Jacroux and the other honorees were chosen by a national selection committee. In July, one Outstanding Teacher of the Year will be chosen and will receive $25,000.
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
