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Matthews Awarded “Texty”
Bolles upper school science instructor Carol Matthews has been awarded the 2010 Textbook Excellence Award by the Text and Academic Authors Association. The “Texty” has been awarded annually since 1992 to recognize current textbooks and learning materials for excellence in the areas of content, presentation, appeal, and teachability.
Matthews co-authored the AP Environmental Teacher Manual and Student Lab Manual with Kathryn Weatherhead, science department chair at Hilton Head Island High School and an adjunct assistant professor at University of South Carolina-Beaufort. The text is one of just seven in the country to be honored with a Texty in 2010. The awards will be presented during a luncheon at the 2010 TAA Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 26.
The manual is the first written collaboration from Matthews and Weatherhead, but the two educators have been friends and colleagues through prior professional efforts. They have conducted AP summer workshops at Bolles and are both are readers for the College Board exams.
The text was published by Teaching Point, an academic publishing venture established by Matthews and her husband, Doug, in an effort to develop instructional materials specifically for the needs of new teachers, teachers with multiple preps, or those teaching out-of-field. The AP Environmental Teacher Manual and Student Lab Manual is designed to be used with any advanced Environmental Science textbook as a content resource and includes a full set of lesson plans, tests for every unit, a lab book, and class notes in PowerPoint.
“I look at the manual as a protocol for teaching,” Matthews said. “There is a need for AP teachers in small schools who have so many other things to teach. In many schools, teachers are not certified. The hope is that your peers will help you, but there are only so many hours in day. This text is kind of a mentor to teachers. It provides an idea of where you are going so you can actually finish things required for the course and have a course that meets required standards.”
Matthews has also published lab manuals for Honors Environmental Science, Marine Biology and Oceanography. She has been nominated for a Texty before, but the 2010 award is her first.
“It’s quite an honor,” Matthews said. “There is a peer review aspect of the award and the process includes three college professors making sure the text is academically accurate.”
“Excellent work and certainly relevant,” commented one of the judges. “The student manual gives students the opportunity to see concepts in practice. This is probably the best material that I have seen on environmental science.”