The SFUSD just announced via its Twitter feed that Kentaro Iwasaki, who recently stepped down after over a decade of teaching at Mission High, is a finalist for the Presidential Award in Math and Science Teaching.

This is a big deal – it’s considered to be the highest teaching award in the country. Winners get flown out to Washington so that they can wine and dine and schmooze with other award-winning elementary and high school teachers. And the National Science Foundation gives them $10,000.

So congratulations to Iwasaki. And here’s a link to some of his former students, explaining why algebra is important to them.