US President Barack Obama Honours Indian-American Teacher Revathi Balakrishnan

An Indian-American woman elementary teacher from Texas has been honored by US President Barack Obama at the White House for her excellent work in the field of education.

Revathi Balakrishnan, a gifted teacher at Patsy Sommer Elementary School, was also named 2016 'Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year'.

"It is not work for me. It is actually a passion," said 53-year-old Austin-based Ms Balakrishnan who has taught in the district's talented and gifted programmes for nine years.

Currently teaching math classes in third through fifth grade at Sommer, Ms Balakrishnan, who was honoured last week, will now represent Texas in the 'National Teacher of the Year' competition.

"I'm an Indian-American, so I think the Indian community is feeling a lot of pride and joy," Ms Balakrishnan said, adding that about 30 per cent of the students at 'Sommer Elementary' are Asian or Indian.

"I feel proud to represent those and I can convince a lot of younger generation Indian kids to turn to teaching for a career. So I feel I can actually have some impact on that," she said.

Ms Balakrishnan has taught at 'Sommer Elementary' for six years before teaching at Forest North Elementary for three years.

Originally from Chennai, Ms Balakrishnan was a systems analyst with Liberty Mutual, managing databases and programming for about 12 years before becoming a teacher