Top teachers take bow

Elia Powers

Weeks after wading through more than 100 applications, the

Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers announced its three Teacher of

the Year Award recipients on Friday.

The winners are Nancy Heiman of Davis Elementary School in Costa

Mesa; Neil Malkus of Newport Harbor High School; and Ted Williams,

who is affiliated with six local schools.

Heiman, a fifth-grade teacher, has 37 years of teaching

experience, including 29 years spent at Sonora Elementary School.

Davis Elementary honored Heiman Friday at the school’s weekly

flag-deck ceremony.

“When they announced my name, I was in a daze,” said Heiman, a

Costa Mesa resident. “It’s an honor to receive the award.”

Heiman has won honorary service awards from both Davis and Sonora

for her teaching methods.

She said her favorite subjects are accelerated math and art.

Earlier this year, Heiman’s students created plaster masks and

entered them into a local youth expo. In a separate project, they

created tools and wrote creative essays about what their lives would

be like as Native American children.

Heiman said she stresses individualized attention in the

classroom.

“One teaching strategy doesn’t work for every student,” she said.

“It’s my job to help each one improve.”

Newport Harbor’s Malkus received the award for his work as a

teacher of English as a second language. He was unavailable for

comment on Friday.

Williams has spent 32 years teaching adaptive physical education

to special-needs students in the district.

He splits his time between TeWinkle Middle School, Costa Mesa High

School, Corona del Mar High School, Lincoln Elementary School,

Eastbluff Elementary School and Woodland Elementary School.

Williams was nominated by his junior high class at Corona del Mar.

He was with the students Thursday when officials notified him of the

award.

“I couldn’t talk,” said Williams, who develops a specialized

program for each student. “I started to cry. All my students shook my

hands and congratulated me.

“This award isn’t for me. It’s for my students and aids.”

Added Corona del Mar seventh- and eighth-grade special education

teacher Suzan Thatcher: “It was delightful to hear the news, but it

wasn’t surprising. He has a positive rapport with the students and

has a great deal of enthusiasm.”

Each year the Federation of Teachers honors an elementary,

secondary and high school teacher from the district.

Federation executive director Frank Oppedisano said a committee

evaluated the initial pool of applicants and chose one teacher from

each of the 26 schools that provided an entry.

Earlier this week, committee members observed 10 of the finalists

in their classroom settings and conducted interviews to make the

final selection.

All three candidates will be honored at a Feb. 10 Newport-Mesa

School Foundation banquet. Oppedisano said local businesses and

philanthropists are donating money that will go to the award-winning

teachers.

He said both Heiman and Williams have been chosen by the

Federation to represent Newport-Mesa at the Orange County Teacher of

the Year Award ceremony.

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

elia.powers@latimes.com.