Northwest

Janet Napolitano? Present!

Shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday, Arizona Teacher of the Year Kim Babeu seemed antsy. Dressed sharply in a black, pinstriped suit with snazzy black-and-white leather shoes, Babeu was an object in motion on the front walk at Flowing Wells Junior High. She continually paced, occasionally clapping loudly, and hugged newcomers to the crowd that was gathering nearby. The only clue to her fidgety energy was the school marquee, which read "Welcome Governor Napolitano - April 26, 2005." "I'm not nervous. I'm really excited," Babeu said. And when an SUV carrying the governor pulled into the school parking lot about 2:15, Babeu's fidgeting abruptly stopped. She became the picture of poise, a gracious host to Janet Napolitano, who had come to see the program Babeu runs at the junior high - the program that ultimately earned Babeu the statewide honor. When Napolitano emerged, she appeared to be greeting an old friend, immediately asking, "How was D.C.?" in reference to Babeu's trip to meet President Bush last week. While Babeu told her about being in the Oval Office, the pair made their way through a maze of sidewalks, stopping at the door to Room E-3. When it opened, a large roomful of students gasped, then applauded. "I heard you had a great teacher," Napolitano said, which earned more applause. The students had been gathered on a sort of in-school "field trip" to demonstrate Babeu's after-school Skills for Success program to Napolitano, though the activities don't normally begin until 3:05 p.m., when school lets out. The kids quickly moved into action. A white projector screen listed some of the basics that make Babeu's after-school program work. Several students explained the acronym "SPORT" - the letters stand for Sportsmanship, Participation, Organization, Respect and Teamwork. "Is that OK, if I take that back to the Legislature?" Napolitano asked, laughing. Several students waited at computer terminals to show different programs they learn in the afternoons, including one that allows kids to make their own cartoons and dub in their own voices. Eighth-grader Marcos Perez, 15, demonstrated a robot the students use in the robotics program. Using a remote control, he made the electronic critter pop two balloons on the floor. When Perez found out the governor was coming, he "felt really excited so she could see what we were doing," he said. He didn't feel nervous showing her the robot, he said. "She got excited when I popped the balloon. She kind of got scared. She was afraid I was going to run into her with the car." Seventh-grader Josh Wheeler, 14, fiddled briefly with the robots before following the governor and Babeu into another area, where Napolitano met Nic Clement, superintendent of the Flowing Wells Unified School District. As Wheeler observed the hubbub, he said the Skills for Success program, which he attends each day, is a really nice place where all the students should go. "I'm astonished that Ms. Babeu worked the hardest to get the governor here for the kids and not for herself," he said. That she would do such a thing means a lot to him, he said. Between 25 and 30 students were present for the visit, and not all of them got to talk directly with Napolitano, but that didn't appear to curb their enthusiasm. "She's a lot more down-to-earth than I would think," said eighth-grader Montana Uihlein, 14, who sat at a computer just within arm's reach of where Napolitano was standing. "I was excited, because I've never seen her. I never thought I'd really see her. It's exciting," said eighth-grader Colby Anderson, 14. "I love Ms. Babeu like family." Andrea Taylor, 14, also in eighth grade, had Babeu as a teacher in seventh grade. When Babeu won Teacher of the Year, "I thought it was wonderful and that she deserved it," Taylor said. And when she found out the governor was coming to her school as a result, "I was shocked," she said. "Our school?" As Napolitano headed out of the melee to go to her weekly press briefing - which she also conducted at the junior high - she told Babeu, "You're teaching the kids - you're teaching them things they want to know." Babeu prefers to think of it as a "back-door approach" to teaching, she said. All standards for math and science learning are met in an environment where the children don't realize that's what they're doing, she said. With a final wave to her young onlookers, Napolitano strode from the room, calling out: "Good to see you all. Keep at it."