BY PAMELA GOULD

Chancellor High School teacher Kimberly Riddle heads to Washington this week to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

But to fit the honor into her busy summer schedule, the Spotsylvania County math teacher had to cut short her participation in a program at the University of Virginia where she's helping craft the curriculum for a new math course to be implemented statewide.

And a few weeks after she returns from Washington, Riddle travels to Hampton Roads for a NASA internship for math and science teachers.

That is classic Riddle, said Pamela Bailey, a Spotsylvania math instruction coordinator.

She said Riddle has been on fire to learn and implement new instructional techniques since attending a training course in Duck, N.C., four years ago.

"She's like a sponge," eager to bring new ideas into her classroom and share them with other teachers, Bailey said.

It's that attitude that led Bailey to nominate Riddle for the presidential award.

Winning it has been a long process that started in early 2011.

Riddle provided a 13-page response to questions on the traits of an outstanding teacher, and was videotaped working with students in the classroom.

Her materials were reviewed at the state level, where she became Virginia's candidate for the award. Then they went before a panel of mathematicians, scientists and educators at the national level.

This month she learned she was one of 46 math teachers and 51 science teachers chosen from across the nation and U.S. territories.

All winners will spend Wednesday through Friday in Washington, where they will talk with members of the Obama administration and Congress about education, and attend professional development sessions with members of the National Science Foundation.

They will be honored at a dinner on Thursday and meet the president at the White House if his schedule allows.

Each winner also will receive $10,000. Riddle said most of that probably will go toward room and board for her daughter, Brittany, who starts at the University of Virginia this fall.

Riddle, 41, earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Mary Washington. She's the daughter of retired Spotsylvania elementary teacher Patricia Riddle.