An A+ for Mrs. Atmadja

Mrs. Angelina Atmadja Wins 2009 Middle School Coach of the Year

Mrs. Angelina Atmadja, who has taught at Kraemer Middle School for nine years and has been the head coach of the MathCounts team for six years, continually shares her enthusiasm for math with all of her students. Arriving school at 7:30 and staying until 5:30 everyday, Mrs. Atmadja loves math and has devoted herself to educating the next generation.  Her hard work and dedication has paid off: this year her team placed first in Regionals and 6th in State. She clearly pours effort into MathCounts and has been an excellent and successful coach. The math team met every Friday after school for two hours since October, and when the team made it to state, Mrs. Atmadja even dedicated her weekends to work with her team. Mrs. Atmadja also employs excellent teaching techniques; she likes to have the team solve problems together so that the students can learn from one another. When things got tough, especially since Science Olympiad came at same time, she inspired the students to persevere in their studies, telling them, “If I can spend hours to solve the problems, why can’t you? If you want to show your best in the competition, you need to push yourselves hard enough to reach that goal.” Mrs. Atmadja also told the student that Thomas Edison once said:  “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” She understands the importance of not only teaching mathematical techniques but also teaching the value of hard work, which is more important than just solving a math problem. The students have had a great year full of experience and growth under her coaching. Students taught under Mrs. Atmadja learned not only the way to solve the math problems, but also learned the right attitude to face problems in their life. For this, Mrs. Atmadja was awarded the 2009 MathsCounts “Coach of the Year.” This is Mrs. Atmadja’s last year coaching Kraemer’s MathCounts team. She is moving on to the new Yorba Linda High School as a department chair in Math. We congratulate her and know she will continue to inspire students in her new position.