Paso Robles High School math and science teacher Mark Fairbank was recenlty chosen as the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Sciencel. Photo by Josh Petray.

When not backpacking in the outdoors, playing hoops during lunchtime, attending Paso Robles High School events, grading papers or working through the early hours of the morning, longtime Paso Robles High School teacher and department head Mark Fairbank spends a lot of time learning.

But the learning is often not about the subject matter he teaches – science and math – but rather the students he's teaching.

For Fairbanks, one of the keystones to instilling success in students is connecting with them by understanding how they learn and putting it to practice through things like Interactive Notepads and direct interactive instruction.

Fairbanks will have the chance to forward some of his ideas about public education, including interactive learning, when he visits Washington, D.C. next fall as part of an elite group of 50 teachers nationwide selected by President Barack Obama as recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching for the State of California.

The award is touted as the nation's “biggest honor for teachers of mathematics and science,” recognizing “outstanding K-12 teachers for their contributions in the classroom and to their profession,” according to a district press release. Fairbanks was selected by a panel of “distinguished scientists, mathematicians and educators following an initial selection process completed at the state level,” according to the release.

According to district officials, Fairbanks is a teacher who has garnered the respect and admiration of his peers and students.

“I am beyond thrilled,” said Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen McNamara.

McNamara said she originally encouraged Fairbank to apply. “When I read the criteria for the award, I thought, this is Mark Fairbank. His name immediately popped into my head. He is a role model teacher.”

It's a job that Fairabanks takes seriously, and it's also one that runs in his family. His parents are both retired educators. His three daughters, all of whom graduated from PRHS and had their father as a teacher, are now pursuing careers in teaching – his eldest, Kerri, is a speech and language pathologist in the Moorpark School District, Sharon has a teaching credential in health and physical education and is completing her master's in physiology at San Francisco State University and married to an astrophysicist and a third daughter, Erica, is about to graduate from Cal Poly this weekend in child development to pursue teaching. His wife, Jane, is the Principal at Trinity Lutheran School.

“I guess if you're family, there's no options, you're going to become a teacher,” said Fairbank with a chuckle. “Not that we told our kids that.”

Fairbank, a 26-year science teacher in the district who has taught biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, AP chemistry and AP Physicals as well as serving as the school's Math and Science Department Chair, said that he realized early on his ambition to become a teacher.

But it wasn't easy – and perhaps part of the reason why he's so inspired to teach, and connect, with students.

“I'm dyslexic,” Fairbank said, “I failed the third grade. Education was extremely challenging for me.”

In fact, Fairbank said, he was in resource classes for reading and to this day spelling and other related subject matters remain challenging for him, he said.

“Teaching is kind of in the family, but I knew that having such a hard time that I would probably make an effective teacher,” Fairbank said. “I understand why the kids get it.”

Two things inspired him to become a teacher – his parents, who still inspire him to this day, and a “desire to make learning a heck of a lot easier than it was for me.”

For teachers like Fairbanks, doing so requires a new way of thinking or approach to teaching, and it's called interactive learning. According to district officials, as department chair Fairbank assisted the entire department as well as 40 percent of teaching staff in implementing “interactive notebooks” and assessment for learning strategies, “which allows students to be active in their learning,” according to the release.

The program was developed through he and his colleagues with the Advancement Via Independent Learning [AVID] program over the last five summers and after presenting AVID strategies across the state.

The way it works is that the teacher gets the right side of the page for input; the student, the left side for student processing. Students use poetry, songs, raps, drawings and other strategies to help them learn.

“Somehow they have to take the information we gave them and make it theirs,” said Fairbank. “So using that strategy helps tremendously, not only in terms of gaining information but retaining it. Taking your science vocabulary and making a rap or a song out of it is much higher processing skill and intellectual ability to do. They actually retain it because it becomes part of them instead of my knowledge given to them and then they regurgitate it, it really becomes part of who you are. It is actually how the brain works.”

Just recently, students put their science skills to task with a walking on water activity at Centennial Park pool, where kids make shoes and walk across the pool and the winner gets cookies from his wife.

“My wife's cookies are very good,” said Fairbank.



* It's all about the kids

In Fairbank's opinion, education “is really about the kids” and not the subject matter.

Fairbank said he makes a concerted effort to try and find ways to connect with his students. He studies their behaviors and after-school activities to that he can understand themselves. There's the story of the autistic student who, upon overstimulation, would retreat to the corner of the classroom and later grew to embrace his teacher and with whom he made a family connection, and then there's the countless students whose personal stories were both challenging and at times upsetting, but through it all Fairbank said he has learned that “education is really about the kids.”

“It's not about the subject matter,” he said. “I try and get in tune with the kids as much as I can. I try and learn as much as I can about them. I will study their grades. So making connections all of the time, to make sure that they know that you are concerned with them and that you are really in tun with their life is very important. Every morning I spend a half hour studying what I teach to students. Not my subject matter, but studying the kids.”

He's a teacher that's in at 5:30 a.m. and out at 5:30 p.m., and he won't leave until the papers are graded. The day doesn't end there, though, as he's often headed off to an extracurricular activity afterward. He's also quick to admit that unlike a doctor's office with a 1-to-1 ratio, a classroom with a 35-to-1 ratio is challenging.

“It is a challenging profession,” he said. “There are a lot of e teachers at our campus and they teach and it's great and they put in a lot of time, but we don't get paid to do those extra hours.”



* Moving forward

The district is currently working to implement training over the next years for direct interactive instruction, a move that would dramatically improve the way teaching is done in Paso schools, said Fairbank.

The study would start with English and Math teachers, along with administrators, for 40 hours of training including the sciences the following summer. He noted the merits of study that supported the effectiveness of the teaching strategy.

It's one of the projects that Fairbank said he was looking forward to. In addition, he said he would like to revamp a culture club that, since the district went to the trimester system, had gone by the wayside.

Overall, Fairbank said that he hopes to elevate the school to the status of being an elite school. He also said he hoped to help implement an intervention program on campus geared toward students that are reading four to five grades below what they should be.

“I'd like to see that we are an elite school in California. I know that we're always judged on our test scores; that's how schools are judged. I know we can make a tremendous difference,” he said. “We're going to be going through some training over the next few years, which is direct interact instruction, which studies point to being one of the most effective teaching strategies there is. So there's tremendous changes going on on-campus right now, which is why I'm really really excited with what I see going on here. I cannot believe the changes that will occur through this if we will wholeheartedly as a staff support it, so I'm very excited.”

When asked about his response to receiving the Presidential award, Fairbank about summed it up in one word: elation.

“I looked at some of the other applicants and said 'are you sure you got the right guy?' I said wow, some of these people are just amazing, so obviously I was considered one of the elite, and I was humbled by it.”

The word is on campus amongst some students is that Fairbank is equally as effective on the basketball court as he is in the classroom. The public may just have to wait and see if Barack Obama could be up for a friendly challenge.



* More about Fairbank

Fairbank is a level-three technology mentor who wrote and implemented a $750,000 grant and taught several courses in computer technology. In addition, Fairbank has presented at local, private and state conferences and workshops in DNA technology, physics and chemistry demonstrations and teaching strategies, according to district officials. He is also an Assessment for Learning coordinator, master teacher for student teachers and an AVID presenter.

He holds a B.S. In chemistry, B.A. in physical sciences and M.A. in science education from California State University, Sacramento and is certified in physical and biological sciences, mathematics and athletics, according to district officials.

“Those who have worked with Mark know that the depth of his commitment to his students is what infuses his work with such creativity,” a district press release stated. Besides teaching in Paso Robles, Fairbank is a former teacher in the Elk Grove School District.

“Mark constantly checks to see that his students have a true and complete understanding before he moves on,” McNamara said. “He gives his students his phone number, so if they are having a problem with homework he can help them. This man is so wonderful that he will come to your house if you are sick to help you. He's on campus at 6 a.m. every day. He is often here on Saturdays, surrounded by a group of enthusiastic students.”

The Fairbanks are 26-year residents of Paso Robles.



* More about the Presidential Award

Winners of the Presidential Award receive $10,000 from the National Science Foundation to be used at their discretion and an all expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. to participate in an awards ceremony and several days of educational and celebratory events including visits with Congressional members, science agency leaders and policy-makers on how to improve mathematics and science education, according to district officials.

For the complete article see the 06-11-2010 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 06-11-2010 paper.

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