Shorewood wins $10,000 Symetra/Seahawks MVP Award for math program

 Photo courtesy Seahawks and Symetra: (left to right): Seahawks President Peter McLoughlin; Shorewood High School Principal Bill Dunbar; and Symetra CEO Tom Marra.

Shorewood was honored by Seahawks President Peter McLoughlin, Symetra CEO Tom Marra and Symetra Executive Vice Presidents Jon Curley and Dan Guilbert during an on-field check presentation at the Seahawks’ final regular season home game on Jan. 2, 2011.

From Symetra Financial and Shoreline Schools
Symetra Financial and the Seattle Seahawks have announced that three Puget Sound-area schools, including Shorewood High School in Shoreline, have won 2010 Symetra Heroes in the Classroom "MVP Awards." Through the award, each school will receive a $10,000 grant to fund an innovative student achievement program.

The Shorewood High School program will help students better understand the complexities of geometry through three-dimensional modeling. The other winning schools were Thurgood Marshall Elementary in Seattle and Lakeridge Elementary in Renton.

The Symetra Heroes in the Classroom program honors teachers in the Seattle, Shoreline and Renton School Districts for educational excellence throughout the NFL football season. 

Twenty-four teachers were recognized as a Symetra Hero in 2010, making their respective schools eligible to compete for an MVP Award. The winning programs were selected by a committee composed of representatives from Symetra Financial, the Seahawks, the Alliance for Education and the three school districts.

Shorewood has been recognized by Newsweek Magazine as among the top 5 percent of public high schools in the nation. After two decades of working with an integrated math curriculum, Shoreline switched to a traditional math sequence last year, and new state graduation requirements stipulate that students in the Class of 2013 and beyond pass geometry.

The Sea 3-D Program will supplement and enrich the curriculum with materials designed to help students master challenging geometric concepts like three-dimensional geometry. Classroom sets of reusable three-dimensional model-building materials will be distributed, and some of the components also will be used to support the school's science and art curriculum.

"Three-dimensional geometry is very difficult to understand when you can only imagine what a polyhedra looks like," said Bill Dunbar, principal of Shorewood. "Through the Sea 3-D program, Shorewood students will be actively engaged in building and manipulating models that allow them to explore these complex concepts and expand their intellectual curiosity."

The schools, represented by their principals, were honored by Seahawks President Peter McLoughlin, Symetra CEO Tom Marra and Symetra Executive Vice Presidents Jon Curley and Dan Guilbert during an on-field check presentation at the Seahawks' final regular season home game on January 2.

Eleven Shoreline School District teachers were honored as Symetra Heroes in the Classroom for their outstanding instructional and leadership skills during the Seahawks regular season. They are:

• Nate Courtney, Kellogg Middle School
• Dede Ford, Syre Elementary
• Marcia Garrett, Einstein Middle School
• Kathy Hitchner, Ridgecrest Elementary
• Bethany Ibach, Parkwood Elementary
• Mollie Merkley, Meridian Park Elementary
• Kristin Mesler, Parkwood Elementary
• Jill Owen, Shorewood High School
• Mark Owen, Highland Terrace Elementary
• Kathryn Pihl, Echo Lake Elementary
• Paul Villanueva, Shorewood High School

For more information about the Symetra Heroes in the Classroom program, visit the Symetra webpage.