At first, Rory Vierra didn't plan to become a teacher. He was leaning toward agriculture.

Even after seven years of teaching science at Moanalua Middle School, he still keeps a second job doing payroll for Costco.

But that doesn't keep Vierra, 34, from shining in the classroom.

Yesterday, Vierra was surprised with a No Child Left Behind American Star of Teaching Award, an honor given annually to one teacher from each state and the District of Columbia. This is the second year the award has been given.

Vierra's students and colleagues, who were as surprised as he was, said he is definitely a stellar teacher.

"He's pretty cool. He makes science fun," said seventh-grader Casey Kaneshiro. "He's funny, too."

Her classmate Vanessa Villa agreed.

"I like the experiments," she said, describing one that involved putting eggs into different liquids and observing the effects. "It was an 'eggs-periment,' get it?"

As the students gave Vierra a boisterous ovation, he was moved to tears when he saw his family members filing in for the ceremony — from his grandfather down to his 4-year-old and 8-year-old sons.

In his speech, he thanked each member of his family for their support. Then he turned to his students.

"I know you think I'm hard and I always get on your case about being excellent and that's because I take my role from you. We have world-champion class baseball champions in my class and I want to be a world-class champion teacher," he said. "I look at you as my inspiration because I want to make sure that you're smart enough, successful enough in life to take care of me when I get older. I want you to be the best."

Vierra also credited the team of teachers he works with for helping him develop good teaching practices. "I'm just a mirror of the team," he said. "I wouldn't be anywhere near as good without them."

Vierra and his team of teachers have done well at helping improve student achievement. At Moanalua, teachers team together and work with the same group of students for seventh and eighth grade.

Last year, he teamed with only two other teachers to keep their group of eighth-graders small. Most teams comprise five teachers who oversee about 140 students, but Vierra's team wanted to be able to provide more attention to a smaller group.

None of the teachers was a specialist in math, but by recognizing that the students needed extra help learning math concepts, the team managed to show the highest achievement on the Hawai'i State Assessment at a school where only one group of students — among dozens defined by such things as ethnicity, poverty levels, English proficiency or special-education needs — missed the state's targets.

Vierra is one of a handful of Moanalua Middle teachers who have moved into the field from a different profession.

"The people that chose teaching after trying something else are just dynamic teachers," said principal Caroline Wong, who nominated Vierra for the award.

The science teacher was selected for innovative teaching methods that get students involved in real issues and problems, such as termite infestation. The students also got hands-on training from researchers at the University of Hawai'i.

In addition, his teaching team led the school in implementing student-led portfolio conferences and got 98 percent attendance from parents.

Carolyn Snowbarger, director of the U.S. Department of Education's teacher-to-teacher initiative, said the award was a reflection of the school as a whole and of the support that teachers get from the administration. She presented the award yesterday.

"You won't find a really good teacher teaching in a vacuum," she said.

Vierra stands out as an example of what the federal education act is attempting to achieve.

"He really embodies No Child Left Behind because in Mr. Vierra's class, no one is left behind," she said.

Vierra was selected from a pool of 2,000 nominations from across the nation.

While introducing his family, he noted that one of his goals was to make his parents proud and to have his grandfather witness his achievements.

"I lived my life to make sure he sees how successful I want to become," he said. "I have the award, but I still don't think I'm here yet."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.