| Glenville - Mr. Rick L. Kinder, a veteran math teacher at Gilmer County High School, has been named the 2009 Gilmer County Teacher of the Year and will become a candidate for the statewide West Virginia Teacher of the Year. Mr. Kinder teaches Applied Math, Algebra I and Algebra II courses to freshmen and sophomores.
Mr. Kinder holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in math education from Glenville State College and a Masters of Arts in Science and Math Education from Wheeling Jesuit University. This spring, Mr. Kinder was honored as one of the twelve best teachers in West Virginia at the 2009 Arch Coal Teacher Achievement Award ceremony in Charleston, WV. He is also the recipient of the 2009 RESA VII Exemplary Secondary Teaching Techniques award.
He has been named to Who's Who Among America's Teachers several times and has been recognized by the National Youth Leadership Forum as an exemplary teacher. Mr. Kinder works cooperatively with the Glenville State College Teacher Education department as a partner teacher for college students who are training to become math teachers. Over the last 28 years, Mr. Kinder has received numerous other teaching and coaching awards.
Teaching has always been a part of Mr. Kinder's life. "I grew up where the importance of a good education was stressed. Both of my parents were in education; my mom was an elementary teacher and my dad was a high school teacher and later guidance counselor at Glenville State College," he said.
After 28 years in the classroom, Mr. Kinder says that teaching get better and he loves it even more. "The best thing I do is to prepare students for the real world so they can be productive, lifelong learners in society and in the work force," he said.
To see that students are well-prepared, he has developed a new math initiative called The Corporate Classroom. "While mathematics instruction has changed over the years, students have also changed their ways of processing information and as a result, have pushed math and technology to new heights. " The Corporate Classroom integrates Kinder's new T-MESH approach that is coupled with 21st Century learning skills and technology integration. The classroom becomes a business structure, and the students learn the application of math skills in a cross-curricular fashion to realize what it takes to be productive learners. This type of investigative, hands-on learning challenges students to use critical, higher order thinking skills.
"We are very proud of the work that Mr. Kinder does every day in his classroom," said Mrs. Nasia P. Butcher, principal at GCHS. "Mr. Kinder always puts the needs of his students first, and he works endless hours to find new ways of teaching math to meet their needs."
Because of the level of technology that Mr. Kinder has integrated into his classroom this year, he was one of four GCHS classroom's filmed by Pearson Education of Chicago, Ill., for the "Who Took My Chalk?" DVD that will be marketed nationally. "The Pearson crew was very impressed with the instruction in Mr. Kinder's classroom and noted the unique teaching strategies and the high use of technology to relate the content to students," said Mrs. Butcher.
Mr. Kinder is a member of the WV Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Education Association, WV Education Association, Gilmer County Education Association, and is the golf coach at GCHS. He is married to Leigh Kinder, a 7th grade math teacher at GCHS, and has two sons, Noah and Camden, both students at GCHS. He attends the Camden Flats Southern Baptist Church in Glenville, WV.
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