Teachers and students at Ewa Makai Middle School surprised one of their own today—with a prestigious award.

Cynthia Tong has been teaching for 23 years. Today, she was named one of five teachers in the nation to receive the NEA Foundation Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence.

“[There’s] so many good teachers here in Hawaii and it’s hard for me to accept that I’m one, even in the nation,” Tong said. “I just do my job the best I can for all of us.”

Tong has been a history teacher at Ewa Makai Middle School for two years, and has already changed the way students learn.

After researching about alternative seating in the United Kingdom, she decided to get rid of desks in her classroom.

“When given the chance, they’d run to the rug, so this year I thought, I’ll buy a few rugs and bean bags,” she said. “The kids love it, they like to be in it to work.”

She says she wants school to be fun, which is why there’s so much color in her room.

“We’re working on making this a more humanistic place to be,” she said.

And her students love her.

“There isn’t a day I walk into her class and not learn about the history of anything, basically,” one of her students said.

As part of the award, Tong will receive $10,000.

She tells KHON2, she spent about $800 out of her own pocket to make her classroom a fun learning environment for her students.

She said she’s going to take half of the $10,000 award, and spend it on the school.

“The teacher [across the hall] wants a room like this, so I told her I’d fund her room, so I’ll buy rugs and bean bags for her,” she said.

Tong will travel to Washington D.C. in February where the NEA will select the teacher of the year from the five finalists. If she wins, she will be the only Hawaii teacher to win the award.

