One of "The Best Teachers of the Year"
In 1999, Yanghee Kim received "The Best Teachers of the Year" excellence award. Yanghee is a second semester master's student in the IS Program at FSU. Yanghee explains, "the award is presented to only three teachers every year in my home country of Korea. A panel of educational administrators and previously awarded teachers appraise 20 candidates from each province. The award is based on devotion to teaching profession, innovation, skills and knowledge on pedagogy. Student responses also play a role in the decision."
Prior to the final decision, candidates were required to give presentations about what they had accomplished in the classroom and how it had affected their students. In her presentation, Yanghee stated that she had focused on creating innovative schools and classrooms to benefit the students. Central to her theme was that teachers must be devoted to preparing their students for the future. Yanghee believes that teachers must keep up with the ever-changing technology if students are to live in this global information society. When speaking with a supplementary Canadian judge at the reception following the award, the judge commented that he was so impressed with Yanghee's presentation that she convinced him to change his view and reluctance about classroom technology. The judge commented that he had given her 99 points because only God could reach 100 points.
Yanghee hails from Kwangju, a city in southwestern Korea. Kwangju was the symbolic center of democratic movements over the military-controlled government from the 1960's to 1980. Yanghee's son and daughter have joined her here in Tallahassee, while her husband remains in Korea. Back home, Yanghee spent twelve years teaching in Korean secondary schools, where teachers are required to transfer to another school every four years. Yanghee has taught in various school settings including: middle school, high school, and at a technical school teaching working students at night. When Yanghee received her award, she was teaching 3rd graders at a middle school. That school level is equivalent to the 9th grade in the United States.
Yanghee is very honored to receive this distinguished award. She has even become a celebrity in the field of education since receiving the award. Yanghee was persuaded to co-author a book describing the rationales, preparation, procedures, and outcomes of her strategies and techniques utilizing classroom technology. She has also received many invitations to lecture at colleges throughout Korea and at teacher training programs, community meetings, and even performing model lessons.
Learners have always been foremost in Yanghee's mind - how she can best serve them through her own efforts. With learners in mind, she was interested in designing and developing web-based instruction to be customized by individual characteristics and to ensure learner autonomy, a more constructivist view. However, her experience at FSU has now oriented her more to Human Performance Technology. Her thinking has developed to where she feels that learning can be directed to future performance improvement in any setting. As far as her current focus, Yanghee is considering expanding her ideas to performance technology, for example EPSS.
In deciding where to further her education, Yanghee referred to the ranking of the top US Universities prior to sending out applications. She sent out several applications at the same time and FSU was the first one to offer her admission. She would like to thank FSU for their responsiveness that helped her make her decision.