Mary Ann Cupples-Wisniowski will be able to throw a little bit of history into her third-grade reading class today at Pittsburgh's Westwood Elementary School: She participated in the White House's first-ever cyber town hall yesterday as one of the live audience members.

"I can't wait to tell the kids," said Mrs. Cupples-Wisniowski, 58, after her White House visit. It will be a surprise because as coordinator of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test, she has been out of the classroom for the past two weeks.

"I really couldn't tell them [I was going] because I wasn't allowed to have contact with the classroom, but they'll be so excited."

Mrs. Cupples-Wisniowski was among about 100 audience members in the East Room of the White House for the event. Building off his success using multimedia and the Internet in his campaign, President Barack Obama conducted history's first presidential online town hall meeting, where he answered questions submitted by e-mail from across the country, as well as fielding queries from audience members.

Questions ran the gamut from the predictable -- when will the economy improve? -- to the off-the-wall -- what about legalizing marijuana and using the tax money to balance the budget? Mrs. Cupples-Wisniowski said the president handled them all with his usual aplomb, first standing at the podium facing away from the live audience, then taking the microphone and moving freely about the room.

Mrs. Cupples-Wisniowski, who went off the school district payroll last year to work on the Obama campaign and serves as political action committee chairwoman for the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, was recommended by the union when Mr. Obama put out the call for teachers to participate in the event. Nurse Cathy Stoddart, who works at Allegheny General Hospital and lives in Mingo Junction, Ohio, also was a member of the audience.

In an event that lasted more than an hour, Mr. Obama answered the questions asked most often among more than 100,000 e-mails sent to the White House, concentrating on those that dealt with his three top issues, health care, energy and education. He also took a half dozen questions from the audience, which was filled with guests from small business, education and health care.

"It was absolutely amazing," Mrs. Cupples-Wisniowski said. "I worked hard to elect Barack Obama, and there I was in the White House with him. I couldn't really believe it."

Two of the questions Mr. Obama answered dealt with education, one from e-mail and one from Mrs. Cupples-Wisniowski's colleague from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. Mr. Obama stressed the need for more classroom support and mentoring for new teachers and the need to take poor teachers out of the classroom.

Both positions found favor with Mrs. Cupples-Wisniowski. She teaches a limited class schedule because she was chosen by her peers six years ago to work as a mentor to help other teachers. "He's right: Teachers do need support," she said. "You can't take new teachers and just put them in the classroom and expect them to know how to handle every situation. I was very encouraged by his ideas for education."

In many cases, unions are expected to do everything they can to protect the jobs of their members. That doesn't extend to ineffective teachers, she said.

"No union would support teachers who aren't effective," she said. "That's why our union has had this mentoring program for years."

Mr. Obama is using the cyber town hall as his version of Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats, taking his message at a time of crisis directly to the public without media filters. This week, in addition to a formal news conference with the Washington media, he held regular town hall meetings in California, appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and participated in the cyber town hall.

"I just can't believe he's reaching out to the little folks like this," said Mrs. Cupples-Wisniowski.