The Presidential Award is an acknowledgement of many years of listening to my students and how they make sense of mathematics, learning from them, and perfecting my teaching skills through professional development, research, and the willingness to keep trying new ideas and methods until my students understand. It also means I can start a post-secondary scholarship fund for the students at Meridian Academy as I believe they have helped me become the teacher I am today.
Kim Zeydel has been an educator for 22 years at the elementary through secondary level in California and Idaho. For the past 4 years, she has taught Math Skills, Conceptual Math, Geometry, Algebra II, and Math Modeling to at-risk high school students at Meridian Academy, where she is also the Mathematics Department Chair.
Kim believes that all students can learn mathematics, and she helps her students believe in their abilities to learn and succeed. She has brought technology and other hands-on activities into the school to enable students to visualize and experience mathematics.
From 2003 to 2007, she spent 1 week each summer teaching geometry or algebra to middle school teachers throughout Idaho. Currently, she is involved in a training program to teach teachers how to use the TI-Nspire for hard-to-teach, hard-to-learn algebraic concepts.
Kim is president-elect of the Idaho Council of Teachers of Mathematics and was co-chair of the 2010 Idaho State Fall Conference.
Kim has a B.A. in Social Sciences from Johnston College at the University of Redlands, an M.A. in Education from Claremont Graduate School, and an M.S. in Education-Mathematics from Walden University. Her credentials in Idaho at the secondary level are in mathematics, social studies, and sociology.
- High-resolution version of the official portrait photograph
- Awardee holding Presidential citation between the Director of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Subra Suresh and the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. John P. Holdren
- High-resolution version of the teacher profile photograph
