DARTMOUTH — Dartmouth native Melissa Zeitz has received the government’s highest honor for teaching mathematics or science in grades K-12.
“I am still in awe,” she said Wednesday from Washington, D.C., where she received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
Zeitz, 40, teaches computer science in the Springfield public schools and coordinates integration of technology into the curriculum.
Presidential Award winners from across the country gathered in D.C. last week for three days of professional development, a reception and dinner at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and an awards ceremony.
Zeitz, who graduated from Dartmouth High School, said her own experience overcoming a learning disability made her passionate about helping students succeed with the help of technology.
“Computers pretty much changed my education,” she said. “I became a stronger student.”
Before that, learning was a struggle. Her mother, Marsha Zeitz, said her daughter had trouble when she tried to put pen to paper. Typing on a keyboard made things easier.
“She feels strongly that any child, any student, can achieve,” her mother said.
