Valley Christian Elementary teacher honored
Pamela Leestma, a second grade teacher at Valley Christian Elementary School in Bellflower, was among those honored in Washington last week for her innovative teaching methods and success in boosting academic performance.
Leestma, who has taught for 33 years, was named one of five American Stars of Teaching honored by a committee of former teachers at the U.S. Department of Education who considered 5,000 nominations.
She was the only elementary teacher to receive the honor. Leestma stood out for her success in incorporating science into the second grade curriculum. In May, Leestma’s Valley Christian class partnered with an after-school program at One Stop Richmond Hill Community Center in New York City for NASA’s first coast-to-coast live video conference with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Leestma also organizes an annual star gazing night for students and their families and conducts professional development and training nationally and for the Assn. of Christian Schools International conferences in Southern California.
At Valley Christian Elementary, she is known for her passionate love of science and igniting in her students the same feeling, principal Ann Samuelson said.
"She brings innovative technology and integrates that into the classroom, which is especially unusual for second grade," Samuelson said.
Leestma came by her fascination of space gazing at the rings of Saturn through a telescope in the second grade. Growing up in Tampa Bay, Fla., her family would race outside during NASA launches to see rockets lifting toward the stars. She met X-15 test pilot and astronaut Joseph Albert Walker only weeks before his June 1966 death in an air collision. Her cousin, David C. Leestma, is a shuttle astronaut and veteran of three space flights, the last being a 1992 Atlantis mission.
Leestma hopes recognition of her work will inspire other teachers, "because they’re ones that need to inspire next the generation."
Her next goal is to obtain video conferencing equipment for her classroom.
"It's a small world out there, and I want to reach across borders," she said.
