Teacher of year focuses on struggling students

BARSTOW • Teaching has long been in Ruth Kikuchi Mallon’s blood.

When she was 9- or 10-years-old, Kikuchi Mallon taught a neighborhood boy who suffered from polio how to ride a bicycle.
Though the boy’s leg was set in a brace, young Kikuchi was unfazed, and together they practiced riding up and down the driveway of her house.

“I didn’t understand at the time,” said the Crestline Elementary School teacher. “I just always thought everybody could do it.”

According to Crestline Principal Dave Finch, that’s one of the things that makes Kikuchi Mallon, a special education teacher, a great educator.

“She is willing to do whatever it takes to help kids succeed,” said Finch. “She’s willing to work with any child.”

Kikuchi Mallon, a 27-year veteran of the Barstow Unified School District, will be recognized as the district’s teacher of the year at the board meeting Tuesday.

One of the unique methods she uses in the classroom is an incentive system called “Kikuchi Mallon Money.”

If a student brings back a signed permission slip on time or answers a question thoughtfully, Kikuchi Mallon gives out colorful slips of paper marked with a “K” or an “M” and a dollar amount — her class version of Monopoly money. If they break a rule, they can be fined.

When fourth-grader Jonae Baker started working with Kikuchi Mallon in January, she could read only 19 words on a list of grade level vocabulary. Now she reads over 100 words on the list.

After a recent one-on-one session, Kikuchi Mallon — who works with kindergarten through fourth-grade-students who are two or more grade levels behind — handed Baker a purple $10 bill.

“I use it because I try to instill upon my students that it’s their job to work in school for six-and-a-half hours,” said Kikuchi Mallon, 53.
It’s also become a math tool where students practice counting by fives, tens and twenties, she said.

And every six weeks, the kids get to cash in at the classroom store, which Kikuchi Mallon stocks with school supplies like mechanical pencils or knickknacks like snow globes, and funds out of her own pocket.

In December, Kikuchi Mallon set up a Christmas store so students could purchase gifts for family members with the “Kikuchi Mallon Money” they earned — but only after carefully budgeting what items they wanted to purchase and for which family member.

“She’s really good about making it a lesson. It’s not just a reward system,” said Finch.

Fourth-grader Dom’unique Johnson said that over two months she saved up $535 and was able to buy two bottles of perfume and a set of earrings for her mother.

Once, a student from another classroom tried to buy from the store using real dollar bills, Kikuchi Mallon remembers, chuckling.

She had to turn the student away. There’s only one way to earn a living in Kikuchi Mallon’s classroom — by working hard.

Classified employee of the year Roy Takekawa, a district maintenance worker of over 10 years, will also be recognized at the board meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the district office board room, at 551 South Avenue H.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com