He says it in such a matter-of-fact way, you might think you misheard Dave Bettine, talking about an after-school project some of his eighth graders are working on.

“We’re trying to launch this thing into space,” says Bettine, a math teacher at Twin Falls Middle School.

Yes, outer space, 120,000 feet up, in fact, and Bettine credits the students with doing most of the work to get it there.

He ticks off the list of their accomplishments:  “They’ve done all the research… from weather patterns to flight paths of commercial and military aircraft, and the geography of ‘ok, where are we going to launch this, and what are our chances of retrieving it?,’ and they did the entire telemetry package inside… ‘we don’t want to just take a picture, we want to take live pictures, and send them back real-time,'” he explained. This project is doing for 10 students what Bettine, recently named the 2012 Middle School Educator of the Year, sets out to do every day for the 130 eighth graders he teaches. That’s to make math interesting, relevant, and even safe.

Bettine often talks about the “safety net” it’s his job to provide for his algebra, pre-algebra, and math enrichment students.

“The one thing they lack so much of is not the ability to do it, but the confidence to try to do it,” he said. “You have to make sure they understand it’s OK to not be right all the time.”

Strange as that sounds, Bettine said, it’s true. Students want to get everything right, and they struggle when that doesn’t happen. Sometimes, they give up, he said, so “it’s important to model, ‘OK, what I did wasn’t right, or it didn’t work. I’ll try it again.'”

Bettine’s 15-year teaching career is the result of his having the confidence (and “an understanding spouse!”) to try it again when, at age 40, he decided to change jobs.

He’d been working as an operations manager for an automotive distribution company in Oklahoma, and wondering what kind of job might give him the same fulfillment he got from coaching his two sons, Sean and Taylor, in Little League.

“I just really enjoyed being around the younger kids, and the energy that they provide,” he said. “They’re just little sponges, wanting to learn everything possible… ‘teach us, teach us, teach us!'”

A favorite teacher from high school, Sue Campbell, had already set the example for him. Bettine said Campbell’s teaching got him through “arguably the toughest course” in college for first-year students, freshman composition.

“She set me up for success,” he said. “I did well in (the class)… it made sense to me, the way she taught it.”

Teaching became the obvious choice, so Bettine went back to school to get his teaching certificate, and then, while he was there, he earned a master’s degree in instructional technology. During that same time, his wife, Sheri, was pursuing her MBA, so it was often challenging for the young family. It has definitely paid off, however.

“I think I’ve found my calling in life,” Bettine said.

The family moved to the Valley 16 years ago, and Bettine took his first full-time teaching post at Snoqualmie Middle School, moving to Twin Falls in 2008 for the challenge of opening a new school. He’d always had an interest in math, so he knew he wanted to teach that subject, and he had an affinity for eighth graders.

“They’re at that spot on the fence where they’re walking away from childhood, but they’re not an adult yet… they’re testing where the boundaries are, but they still need that strong grasp on the past.”

He helps them find that, and prepares them for success at the high school, by reminding them:  “Here are those things that worked well for you in the past…. Don’t abandon those because you’re moving on to a different playing field.”

After all, it’s what he did.