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Show Math teacher honored bv board the right foot By starting off with lessons in elementary arithmetic-simple arithmetic-simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and divisionthe students gain confidence by successfully suc-cessfully solving these easy problems prob-lems and then moving on to those more difficult. "I test them every fifth day on what they've studied for four days. We don't move on until the lessons have been mastered." Dave's dedication to his students is for real, and his enthusiasm is contagious. He helps out in the cafeteria, does hall duty to keep a close eye on kids outside of class and makes sure they don't get into trouble. One recent Career Ladder day, he picked up one of his students who was way behind in his work and in danger of failing. It was only 7 a.m., but he sat the boy down in the empty classroom and told him he had all day to catch up on back lessons. 'And while I did my career ca-reer ladder assignment, he worked at catching up, saying all the while, 4I can't believe you are doing this!' " Perhaps his success with problem students is best summed up by a letter recently written by the grandmother of a former pupil. She wrote: "My grandson had the best counselors and psychologists, but they were unable to motivate him. Last year he got three Fs and 3 D's. Then he found Leo and changed completely. That teacher has so much love and concern for these children. My grandson says 'He's awesome! But Dave modestly rejects such accolades. "You just have to let the kid know you care about him, find something positive about his abilities, abili-ties, and he'll turn around. He does admit to a sense of pride, however, when former pupils go on to take advanced math classes in high school and even college. "Then I know I must be doing something right.' Tuesday evening the Board of Education honored Davis District's own version of the remarkable teacher in the movie "Stand and Deliver.' He is Kaysville Junior's 1 3 year veteran math teacher, Dave Leo. Though he earned his B.S. and master's degrees at Utah State University Uni-versity in physical education and taught physiology for three years at Carbon High School, Kaysville Junior Ju-nior High School's former principal, prin-cipal, Farrell Humphrey, "turned me into a math teacher. For this, countless students will surely be forever grateful. Dave teaches six math classes a day, three in pre-aJgebra and three in basic level "survival" math for eighth and ninth graders. Survival math classes are for the slower students, those with behavioral problems who have been turned off by school and labeled as failures. Somehow Dave turns them on again. "You have to like this type of kid and believe in them so they can begin to believe in themselves. I start right out telling them I know you have a problem and so do you. But I'm not going to let you fail this class. I refuse to give you an 'F'!" This seems to get things off on |
