CHS' Edmiston earns state teaching award

The Louisiana Association of Teachers of Mathematics has named Dr. Patricia Edmiston, math teacher at Covington High School, Teacher of the Year.

Edmiston teaches two AP calculus courses, AB and BC, for which her students have received from three to nine hours of college credit. She also teaches calculus honors and three classes of Algebra II honors.

Edmiston has been teaching at CHS for five years and has 20 years of teaching experience. She holds a PhD in curriculum and instruction specializing in math and science education.

She feels she has a gift of making math understandable to her students.

“I love the expression on their face when they finally complete a particularly different math problem,” Edmiston said. She said she has many former students currently majoring in math and engineering in college, including LSU and Georgia Tech.

In addition to her teaching duties, she has written a new course as a contract employee for the Louisiana Department of Education. The course entails math essentials combining geometry and algebra II, acting as a transition course between those courses and advanced math or calculus. The course will include drafting and surveying and could be used to fulfill math course requires for those students who do not plan to continue on to college.

Edmiston is also a state finalist for the Presidential Teaching Award.

At CHS, she is the sponsor of the robotics team. The team won the “most innovative robot” award at the Southwest Regional FIRST Robotics competition in Arlington, Texas.

In addition to her educational and academic activities, Edmiston is also an alderman in Abita Springs.