The teachers nominated for the American Teacher Awards are, as usual, a diverse bunch: One teaches in a single-wide trailer stocked with high-speed computers, another in a room full ofiguanas, snakes, parrots and frogs. Still another makes a classroom out of a local meadow, where students launch rockets to test basic principles of math and science. And while some say the key to success is discipline, others say it's making learning fun.
What these individuals have in common is enthusiasm for the subjects and the students they teach. "By demanding excellence in their students and in themselves, these outstanding teachers inspire us to take action in creating a better future for our children," says Anne Sweeney, president of the which will air the awards ceremony on June 20, 1998. "We pay tribute to teachers because they are the most influential people in the lives of kids and families."
In the spirit of that tribute, FamilyFun interviewed a handful of these teachers--selected at random from the nominees--and asked them to share their ideas for bringing out the best in students.
The teachers have as many strategies for getting kids excited about learning as they have students in their classes. Social-studies nominee Myra Dietz, who teaches seventh grade at the School of the Arts in Rochester, New York, says that the best thing a teacher can do is expect greatness from her students. "The most common mistake is to underestimate students and not truly challenge them," she says. "I tell my students, my job is not to teach them answers that they can repeat back to me, it's to teach them how to learn for themselves."
To that end, she fosters lively debates in her classroom, not shying away from controversial topics. Her students rise to meet her expectations. "In my honors class, we had a week-long discussion about the death penalty," she says. "Students wrote focus pieces and presented their own ideas on whether or not the death penalty is moral. It's important to challenge students to have their own points of view, to not just accept something because an adult told them it was so."
Seventh-grade science teacher John Zavalney of Los Angeles, California, uses his classroom's menagerie of animals to engage his students: Each student chooses an animal to study, and learns about the creature's native land, feeding habits, and needs in captivity. His classes have been enriched by his many independent projects, including a three-month stint as a volunteer working with primatologist Jane Goodall in Tanzania. "I'm always taking classes and giving workshops," he says, "modeling good habits for the students."
Cinde Rinn of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who teaches a computer-based course for students who have failed state tests, holds classes in a trailer, since the school building is overflowing with students. But she hasn't allowed the small size of her classroom to cramp her imagination: For a lesson on the Wild West, she had her students keep diaries from the perspective of pioneers on the Oregon Trail, writing as European men and women on the frontier, and as Native Americans.
The students went on to produce a newspaper based on the pioneers' lives, complete with "for sale" and "wanted" ads. "The point was not just to find out what life was like for the settlers, but to gain knowledge they can apply to their lives today," she says. Rinn has also helped her students do everything from producing video news programs to building graphs to gauge the speed of cars they made out of drinking straws and other common materials.
Making schoolwork come alive for her students is the key, says Rinn, particularly since they have all experienced failure. For many, talents in other areas--like visual arts--can boost their self-esteem and drive them to academic success. "A lot of kids get a lot of negative comments from their own parents," she says. "When they produce their own newspaper on the computer, they can use color, they can use graphics, and the project looks good. They can take it home and show it to their parents and be proud of it."
Foreign-languages nominee Martie Semmer finds that studying Spanish has enabled her students to achieve success in other areas, as well. Semmer has an unusual course load: She teaches Spanish to 480 children in kindergarten through fifth grade, commuting to three different elementary schools in Breckenridge and Frisco, Colorado. The early foreign-language program has been operating in the district since 1993, thanks to the efforts of Semmer and other advocates.
Semmer believes the benefits of an early start are immeasurable. "There's a part of the brain that's very receptive to learning languages prior to age 10," she explains. By junior high school, when most students begin language lessons, she says, "the facility that had been there prior to age 10 is not there any more." Studying Spanish also builds respect for other cultures, and since the classes are a cooperative venture, children develop their ability to work together. And Semmer makes a point of building on the lessons children learn during their other classes: This spring, her students wrote Mother's Day poems in Spanish to complement the poems they were composing in English class.
Nominee Marlene Henriques, Ph.D., a kindergarten teacher in Fairfax, Virginia, finds inspiration in what she calls the "teachable moment": a time when students happen upon an experience--like the birth of a new sibling--that they can talk about in class. "When the children are excited about something, that's the time to talk about it," she says. "If a child has a new baby brother, we'll talk about the diversity of families, about nurturing, and about caring for a new baby--and that can lead to a discussion about caring for animals, too," she says.
Fourth-grade teacher Cheryl Zenko--who teaches at Cleveland's most impoverished elementary school--makes sure to lavish praise on her students and emphasizes teamwork. As her students create stories together, those who have trouble reading serve as expert illustrators at first, so that they learn to see school as a place where they can indeed be successful. "When children can make a contribution and be successful in one area, they blossom in other areas," she says. "They come to feel safe taking risks."
On the other hand, Scott Wells--who teaches in a similarly disadvantaged school in Long Beach, California--calls himself "the strictest teacher in the school." He teaches Japanese and French to junior high school students at Long Beach's Jackie Robinson Academy, and prides himself on his demanding standards. But while it may sound like Zenko and Wells use opposing philosophies, they have much more in common than it seems: While Zenko attributes her success to good classroom discipline as well as positive reinforcement, Wells attributes his own success to the respect he has for his students. "I'm real strict, but when I deal with students, I don't punish them, I remove them from the situation," Wells says. "They like it that I have high standards. I want to prove to them how smart they are, by giving them the most challenging work possible." Wells also mentors nine former students who attend high school across town.
The common thread that runs through these stories is respect for children, belief that students can achieve more than they thought possible, and a willingness to set limits and stick by them. But more than that, it is a respect for the process of teaching itself. English teacher Mark Antonoff of Downers Grove, Illinois, thinks Christa McAuliffe said it best: "We are in a position to touch the future. It's what we do."
Maura McDermott is Assistant Education Editor at FamilyFun.
