, Diana Garcia / Roundup
Bruce Yoshiwara, Math Teacher, received the Teacher Excellence Award at the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges 35th annual conference held in Las Vegas on Nov. 12 2009.
Nominees for the award were judged on teaching efficiency, professional involvement and interaction with colleagues.
With Kathie Yoder and Kathy Yoshiwara, Bruce became the third Pierce professor to receive this prestigious award.
“It is really a tremendous honor. There are currently about 9000 full-time two-year college math faculty in the U.S but only 47 people have received AMATYC’s Teaching Excellence Award,” said Yoshiwara.
Yoshiwara is part of the:
· Advisory board of the Mathematical Sciences Digital Library
· The executive board of AMATY
· The governing board of the California Mathematics Council Community Colleges South
“I’m currently on three national committees and formerly chaired the National Committee on Technologies in Mathematics Education,” said Yoshiwara.
Yoshiwara continues to stay active and involved in the math community by giving presentations at math conferences throughout the U.S and in England.
“He is very involved with the professional organizations, and applies his knowledge to improving our math program here at Pierce,” said Kathy Yoshiwara
Yoshiwara believes that teaching math should not be about solving math problems, but getting students to do the work.
“I have the opportunity to help others learn math, to work with others who share a passion for teaching math and to continue to learn more math,” said Yoshiwara. “But I’ll always be trying to improve my own teaching.”
Yoshiwara discovered his passion to become an educator while employed as a teacher’s assistant at the University of California at Los Angeles and part-time professor at Marymount High School.
“Anyone interested in teaching as a career should realize that the best teachers all devote themselves to a lifetime of learning,” said Yoshiwara.
He is a contributing co-author (Kathy Yoshiwara principal author) of pre algebra text, elementary algebra text, intermediate algebra text, and a college algebra text.
“I have co-authored two articles recently published in publications of the Mathematical Association of America,” said Yoshiwara.
Aside from his academic career, Yoshiwara enjoys to participate in running marathons.
“He is a long-distance runner and has completed over 30 marathons, including the Boston marathon twice,” said Kathy Yoshiwara.
Facts about Professor Yoshiwara:
· He has lived in Germany for a year, while completing his PhD.
· He has lived in England on a Fulbright Teaching Exchange.
· Favorite movie is Casablanca.
· Favorite TV series is House.
· Favorite food is rice.
· Favorite book is The Princess Bride by William Goldman.