By Dasia Walters

“It is an honor to receive an award for something you believe in and love to do every day.” – computer science teacher Kevin Clevenger

Some teachers instruct on content, while other teachers give students the skills to teach themselves, the freedom to explore and the ability to learn directly from experience. Senior Nathan Lara described computer science teacher Kevin Clevenger’s teaching style as exactly that.

“He’s a teacher who won’t necessarily give you the answers to the question, but he will push you to understand it yourself,” said Lara, “and in my opinion that’s a lot better because it makes you able to understand the situation.”

That classroom approach may have been one of the reasons why Clevenger, for the second time, was chosen as the winner for Missouri Project Lead the Way’s (PLTW) Outstanding Computer Science Teacher Award.

Award winners were recognized at an  October 28 banquet in St. Peters, Missouri. There, they had the opportunity to meet with Governor Jay Nixon as well as CEO of PLTW Vince Bertram.

“The banquet is always a fun event to attend each year,” said Clevenger. “The banquet and PLTW Missouri state conference allows you to network and talk to other teachers and school officials about what they are doing in their school and classrooms.”

Aside from being recognized as an outstanding teacher, Clevenger also received a plaque for being a Master Teacher for PLTW in computer science.

“The award means a lot to me, but at the same time I am very humbled by receiving it,” Clevenger said. “I believe there are many other teachers that deserve the award as much as others think that I deserved it. It is an honor to receive an award for something you believe in and love to do every day,” he added.