It's no small feat to take students who don't like math and get them to like it-especially in an inner city school on Chicago's south side. But that's precisely what math teacher and department chair Delora Washington has done among her eleventh-grade students through a variety of strategies: using technology, tutoring students after school, making math relevant to students' lives, and never hesitating to stop and explain any concept a student doesn't understand. "I don't want you to be held back because you're on the south side of Chicago," Mrs. Washington told her students after being surprised with her Milken Educator Award. "You can be anything you want to be if you work hard." In addition to teaching math, Ms. Washington taught French for several years, and played a key role in developing Corliss High's foreign language lab. She also trained the school's foreign language teachers on how to use the lab software. They may be learning some new phrases, such as: Madame Washington est le meilleur prof du monde!
