A science teacher at El Camino Junior High School was named the 2009 Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year on Thursday.

Luke Laurie was “one of several outstanding candidates” for the honor, and was chosen partly for his community involvement, which ranges from efforts that directly affected his students to broader efforts to help under-served communities, according to the Santa Barbara County Office of Education.

This fall, Laurie will be the county's nominee for the state Teacher of the Year award.

“For me, the most important thing is to provide students with opportunities, and my hope is the thing that I'm doing is providing them with as many opportunities as possible to be successful and find success in their lives, and happiness,” Laurie said.

After receiving his bachelor's degree and teaching credential at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Laurie came to El Camino, where he has taught robotics, physical science and science for English Language Learners for 10 years.

His “classroom is truly a model for other teachers to find even more ways to reach our students ... Mr. Laurie is a life-long learner who is always bettering himself as an individual and as a teacher,” Principal Mark Muller wrote when he nominated Laurie for Teacher of the Year.

Though he has received plenty of recognition for his in-class teaching techniques, for Laurie teaching - and learning - go far beyond the classroom.

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“I believe that in order to truly impact students, to motivate them to be successful and to allow them to take ownership of their learning, schools must offer a broad range of curriculum and enrichment opportunities ... I provide technical experiences and teach skills to fill a void in the traditional curriculum and expose students to college and career possibilities,” he said.

To that end, Laurie is an advisor for El Camino's Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) chapter, the chairman of the science department, director of the RoboChallenge contest, and a facilitator for the Beyond the Classroom program.

Laurie's interests also extend to public education policy.

“One of my concerns and one of my fears right now ... is that teachers so often now are being discouraged from doing things that are enrichment-based,” he said. “We've reached a dangerous point in the pendulum of education policy.”

Chosen as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow in 2006, Laurie moved temporarily to Washington, D.C., to work with Congressman Mike Honda, D-San Jose, on Capitol Hill.

“He was my primary aide on all education matters ... His diverse experiences as an educator and his work in under-served communities gave him unique insights in complex issues,” Honda said in a prepared statement. “Luke is efficient, resourceful, creative, a great team player and an excellent communicator.”

Ultimately, Laurie's greatest achievements as an educator are not the big awards and the recognition, he said, but seeing the students he taught succeed.

“One of the things that makes me most proud is when I run into my former students, when I encounter them in the community ... It's good to see how many of them are doing well,” he said.

Natalie Ragus can be reached at 347-4580 or nragus@santamariatimes.com.

May 2, 2008