Best in Class : 1988 Teacher of the Year Puts Excitement Into the Job

Lorna Mae Nagata’s fourth-graders not only learn, they have fun too.

“I try to make learning as exciting as possible for children,” Nagata, of Fremont Elementary School in Alhambra, said Thursday after being named 1988 California Teacher of the Year. “I feel that educators have the most important job in the world.”

Nagata, 40, who lives in Monterey Park, was chosen from among the state’s 200,000 teachers by a committee that included state Department of Education staff, representatives of the PTA and last year’s Teacher of the Year. At a press conference announcing the award, state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig described Nagata as “a good representative of the quality of California teachers.”

This year, for the first time, the honor included a cash award of $15,000, given by Teachers Management and Investment Corp., an investment firm in Newport Beach.

Runners-up were William S. Coate, Madera Unified School District, Madera County; Barbara DeBow, Anaheim Union High School District, Orange County; and Michael D. Jordan, Ramona Unified School District, San Diego County. The runners-up received $5,000 each.

On a recent day, Nagata’s fourth-graders were doing a math lesson, but instead of hunching over workbooks, they bounced around, guessing how many seeds were in pumpkins, weighing them, carving them, groaning “Yuck!” as they took turns pulling out the stringy insides.

One child put down the pumpkin he was eviscerating to comment on what made Nagata’s classroom special.

“It’s funner,” he said.

Principal Susan Sato-Tenorio says Nagata is a faculty leader and an inspirational teacher who makes her students feel good about themselves. Colleagues laud her for her willingness to share ideas and log countless hours working on committees and special projects.

Nagata, who has taught at Fremont all 16 years of her professional life, doesn’t remember ever wanting to do anything else.

The oldest of four children, she grew up on the island of Maui (she can still do the hula). Her parents were truck farmers. Learning was important in the home, and teaching was regarded as a particularly honorable profession.

“We never had much money for toys but whenever we asked for books, we always got them,” she said.

A favorite aunt was a teacher, and Nagata also admired her own teachers. “Every year when I went to school it seemed it was my best year, and I wanted to be a teacher just like that teacher,” she recalled.

Nagata involves her students in the learning process by having them write and illustrate their own books.

“We turn this place into a publishing company in February and March,” Nagata said.

Her children have produced such provocative titles over the years as “Charlie Pickle” and “The Strawberry That Wanted to Get Married.” The students test-market their volumes by reading them to children in the lower grades. After the books are laminated and bound with yarn, they go into the school library to be catalogued and circulated along with such classics as E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web.”

Becoming a parent after 10 years of teaching renewed her commitment to the profession, Nagata said.

“I found that I was far more compassionate and understanding of parents” after sons Dean, 7, and Ian, 4, were born, Nagata said. Her husband, Carl Nagata, a former teacher, is now an administrative intern in the Alhambra City School District.