[July 06, 2011] River Ridge teacher a finalist for Presidential Award Tweet Jun 28, 2011 (The Olympian - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- River Ridge High School teacher George Christoph is one of six teachers from Washington who have been named state-level finalists for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. "The finalists are all teaching in a wide variety of settings, but they share the common commitment of building great relationships with their students and showing a passion for math and science," Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn said in a news release. "By focusing on the individual needs of students and getting creative in their classrooms, these model teachers have opened a world of possibilities for their students." Other finalists are: Robert Ettinger of Asa Mercer Middle School in Seattle, John Gallagher of Port Angeles High School in Port Angeles, Kimberly Taylor and Andrew Means both of Enumclaw Middle School in Enumclaw and Nathan Shields of Fort Vancouver High School in Vancouver. Christoph has more than 40 years of experience in education, and teaches geometry, pre-calculus and advanced mathematical reasoning at River Ridge in Lacey. He is a National Board Certified Teacher. His students recently wrote a pre-calculus text book for Tanzanian students. He also teaches at Saint Martin's University. The winner of the national award is typically announced in the spring. For more information, including profiles of the other finalists, click here. To see more of The Olympian, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.theolympian.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]