College of Education alumni named State, District Teachers of the Year

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Jennifer Parks, (808) 956-0416
Communications Coordinator, College of Education
Posted: Nov 28, 2014

From left, Takamura, Uchino, Caine and Madayag.
From left, Takamura, Uchino, Caine and Madayag.

The Hawaiʻi State Teacher of the Year and three District Teachers of the Year are all graduates of the UH Manoa College of Education (COE). State Teacher of the Year Catherine Caine earned a professional diploma in elementary education and a master of education (MEd) degree in curriculum studies.  Also honored were Central District winner Jamie Takamura, Leeward District winner Masaru Uchino and Kauai District winner Marly Madayag.

Caine is a National Board Certified teacher at Waikīkī Elementary, where she has taught for the past 24 years. With a career in education that spans more than three decades, Caine says retirement is not in her plans and that she is just getting started. She attributes the love and dedication she has to the field to her second-graders who learn and share in a hands-on environment where connections to everyday life are an integral part of lessons.

At the COE, Caine focused on pre-kindergarten through third grade during her master’s program, and served as a mentor teacher. “The COE supported my career in several ways. There was a professional learning community atmosphere in which educational issues and trends were explored. I appreciated the way assignments were based on real-world classroom needs, and how the professors were very approachable and modeled a professional attitude," she said.

In addition to a $1,000 prize from the Polynesian Cultural Center, a year-long lease on a new Honda and products from SMART Technologies, Caine will represent Hawaiʻi in the National Teacher of the Year Program. President Obama announces the winner in April.

Takamura is the curriculum coordinator at Red Hill Elementary, where she also serves as data team manager, Title I coordinator and academic review team leader. She received her BEd in elementary education from the COE as part of the Ka Lama V cohort out of the Leeward Coast. “This program was a great pre-service teacher preparation program. I was well prepared to begin teaching when I graduated, and many of us from the cohort gained a lot of leadership skills and have become UH mentors,” said Takamura, who is site coordinator of the COE’s dual certification program at Red Hill.

Uchino, who earned an MEd in educational technology, oversees the math instruction for the third grade at Momilani Elementary, and is the founder of an afterschool running and fitness group. “My experience in the COE’s educational technology program helped me to get back to the ‘roots’ of education,” he said. “It was amazing to discover how degrees like mine can be applied to almost any industry that needs training or instructional design content. I would like to thank my instructors from the bottom of my heart for sharing their knowledge and passing on the passion for learning, which I try to emulate in my own classroom every day.”

Having graduated from three COE programs, Madayag holds a BEd in elementary education, a professional diploma in elementary education and an MEd in educational foundations. Chair of the fifth grade at Kalāheo Elementary, she is trained in special education and the gifted and talented program. She also directs a volunteer drama program and has worked with the nonprofit Hawaiʻi Children’s Theatre for 15 years.

Each of the District Teachers of the Year was awarded $500 from the Polynesian Cultural Center and classroom resources from SMART Technologies.

For more information, visit: https://coe.hawaii.edu/