School: Marple Newtown High School, where he is a physics teacher and the Science Department leader.

Achievement: Andrews, 45, was named the 2007 teacher of the year by the Marple Newtown Education Association, which represents approximately 315 teachers. He has taught in the district since 1986, and at the high school since 1992.

In addition to co-coordinating two school programs, Junior Initiative and Senior Project, Andrews is a class adviser, working with more than 300 students until their graduation on activities such as dances and fund-raisers.

Question: Who chose you for his award?

Answer: The award is determined by a committee of teachers from throughout the district who have been previous recipients of the award. The award dates back to 1975.

It is given based first and foremost on the teacher's teaching practices based on information from other teachers, administrators, parents and even students. But it also includes other achievements and activities related to teaching.

Q: Were you surprised?

A: It was a complete surprise - I had no idea I had been selected. The president of our association, Lynne Bertolet, and the district superintendent showed up at our faculty meeting, and Lynne got up and made a brief speech. About two sentences in, I realized she was talking about me.

Q: What other recognition have you received as a teacher?

A: I was selected to be one of 50 teachers in the nation to participate in the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship program for teachers during the summer of 1992; [the program] is run in conjunction with Princeton University.

The fellowship program that year was an examination of and the creation of curriculum materials for Statistics and Probability for Middle Schools. I was also selected to be in the Science and Engineering Program for Teachers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the summer of 1996.

Q: What was your very first day of teaching like?

A: All I remember is that I started in mid-January, replacing a teacher who had to retire for health reasons. I had contracted some kind of flu bug and was incredibly sick, but I wouldn't allow myself to not go in for my first day of work, so I went.

I was sick all day, but made it through; however, I got worse that evening and was bedridden by the next day - so I had to call in sick my second day on the job. After that, I was so paranoid, I wasn't absent for about two years - I didn't want the district to think they had hired some slacker who was going to call in sick all the time.

Q: Why do you enjoy physics?

A: From the time I was a kid, I have always had a deep drive to understand the universe around us and learn as much as I could about how things work, and that is essentially what physics is - a scientific endeavor to understand how the universe works.

That same drive has also caused me to read a lot of books on philosophy and religion because they are also attempts to understand the universe and our place in it, but in a different way.

Q: If you could improve education in any way, what would you change?

A: We must change the way we fund education in Pennsylvania. The current property tax system perpetuates inequality. Wealthy areas can generally afford to attract highly qualified people and have decent facilities, while poor areas struggle to attract and retain good people and are usually stuck with awful facilities.

Q: What effect has this award had on you?

A: The award hasn't caused me to change anything, but it has reminded me to continue to work hard and to always give my students my absolute best.

Q: What does 2008 hold for you at the school?

A: I'm already working on our 13th annual [Junior Initiative] conference this coming October.

What the Education Association president says: "Dennis Andrews is quite deserving of this award for many reasons," Bertolet says. "He is the consummate professional. He tries to bring out the best in all his students, and challenges them to continually strive for the excellence he sees in them. Students leave his classes feeling that, 'I finally understand physics. He helps me understand what it is all about.' . . .

"One of the highest praises a teacher can receive is for former students that have graduated to come back and visit. Dennis' former students not only come back to fill him in on their lives, but also to thank him for caring and making learning such a positive, meaningful experience.

- Shannon Hallamyer