PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. -- Portageville elementary art teacher DeLois Booker encourages her students look at their subjects in new ways.

"When students say, 'I'm having a bad day,' I tell them it's not a bad day, it's just a bad moment," Booker said. "If we rethink something, there is always a better side."

It is her philosophy and her efforts on behalf of her students that earned her the 2002 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award. The honor, which comes with an unrestricted cash award of $25,000, was presented to Booker on Wednesday before her co-workers and students by Missouri's Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Kent King and Lori Hauser Holden, wife of Gov. Bob Holden.

The Milken Educator Award is given to classroom teachers, principals and other public school professionals who are providing exemplary leadership in their schools and communities and working to promote excellence in public education.

A first- through sixth-grade art teacher, Booker began working for the Portageville School District just two weeks after graduating from college 15 years ago.

In her classes she works to encourage creativity among the nearly 400 youngsters she teaches each week. Assignments range from drawing and design elements to crossing into other class assignments such as incorporating reading or math into their art.

"Art is all around us, and they should incorporate creative thinking in everything they do. It makes life more exciting," she said. "There is much more to education than the three Rs."

Booker and another winner, Kathryn Garrett of St. Louis, will receive their cash awards next spring at the Milken Family Foundation National Education Conference in Los Angeles.