Seniors at Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM) honored their favorite teachers last month with a special recognition ceremony.

More than 50 teachers from across the state, many of them accompanied by spouses, principals, superintendents and legislators, traveled to Oklahoma City to be congratulated by their former students for their commitment to excellence in education.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sandy Garrett attended the ceremony to present certificates of appreciation to the honorees. As the certificates were awarded, Tyler Suiters, news anchor for KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, read a personal tribute about each teacher written by his or her former student.

“The purpose of Teacher Appre-ciation Day,” said Edna Manning, president of OSSM, “is to recognize that a significant part of our students’ success is due to the education they received from teachers they had in their home school districts. It also gives students an opportunity to thank these outstanding individuals for the important, positive impact they had on their lives.”

The students of OSSM’s 16th class will graduate at the end of May on the steps of the Oklahoma state Capitol. The seniors in the class of 2007, including 60 students from 43 counties across Oklahoma, will join the ranks of 900 students who have graduated from OSSM since 1992. Their numbers include 248 National Merit Scholar finalists and 145 commended scholars, 76 Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence Academic All-State Scholars and more than 200 Robert C. Byrd Scholars. The class of 2007 has 24 Advanced Placement Scholars and 16 recipients of Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Scholarship.

The following tribute was submitted by Timothy Thomas honoring Kay Dragoun, his 10th-grade Enid High School world literature teacher:

“Ms. Dragoun taught me that there are five things that must be mastered to succeed in studying literature: reading, writing, listening, speaking, and critical thinking. I learned to read quickly and to retain the details. I learned how to hammer clear, concise thesis statements out of the general ideas in a paper.

We often read aloud in class; thus, I learned to listen to others. The most important thing I learned was that there is a whole world out there of which I am often unaware. This was one of the only times in my life that I was always caught up on the latest news. She helped us to think in the context of our assignments, but she also made us aware of the world around us.

Apart from knowing what to teach, Ms. Dragoun knew how to teach it. We seldom had the same method for covering material. Of all the teaching strategies, the thing that stands out the most in my mind is the time I had to do a biography on an author I had read earlier that year. The catch was that this was not a regular biography. It was a living one. The assignment was to research my author to the extent that I would actually be able to impersonate him. I came to class on the day assigned dressed as my author and then had lunch with another author, discussing our lives. It was one of the most rewarding research projects that I have ever done.

Ms. Dragoun made such an impact on me because she is so good at what she does. She could teach me everything I needed to know about literature without letting me fall into boredom. Every day in her class was an adventure. She taught me to improve the skills that are so important in literature and to stay engaged in the world. I owe her greatly for all she has done for me, and I will continue to benefit from the experience of her class.”