TOP-TIER TEACHER

Teacher-of-the-year runner-up employs creative methods in classroom

By Michelle Wallace

LITTLE ROCK — Darby Wallace was called to teach.

The U.S. history teacher at Newport High School and Arkansas Teacher of the Year second runner-up realized way back in the eighth grade that she would be an educator. During her college years, her grandmother realized that young Darby’s ambition was a calling for her. Now, after more than a dozen years of teaching, Wallace is consumed with educating the young people who enter her classroom in a way that is meaningful to them.

Wallace was among 12 teachers who were singled out by Gov. Mike Beebe and the Arkansas Department of Education as finalists for the prestigious Arkansas Teacher of the Year honor. The room was packed with dedicated instructors from all over the state as Wallace was recognized and presented with a $1,000 cash award.

“I was so excited to be there, and to be in that room,” Wallace said of the ceremony held at the Arkansas State Capitol.

Just as she does every day for her students, Wallace gave her students something special to enjoy after she was named the second runner-up for this honor. The entire student body - all the kids in ninth through 12th grades - were treated to Blue Bell ice cream in honor of Wallace’s being named as a finalist.

They were thrilled about that, of course. It wasn’t the first time they were involved in Wallace’s teacher-of-the-year experience, though.

The teacher-of-the-year award comes with intensive and tedious paperwork, observations and personal reflections on the part of the educator being nominated for the honor. Wallace put her heart and soul into this lengthy application process, just as she does with every aspect of being a teacher, and her students were with her every step of the way.

“My students were very sweet during the entire process,” Wallace said.

They regularly asked her,“Have you heard yet?” or “Have you won?”

Though she technically didn’t “win,” Wallace believes she gained quite a bit from the experience.

“I understand what it’s like to put your best effort forward and not win,” she said.

She was able to empathize with the school’s basketball team when they lost by one point in the state championship game. They didn’t win the state trophy, but the experience taught them so much, Wallace said. The same holds true for her.

Wallace, like so many of her peers, is an idealist tempered with reality who comes to school each day with the lofty notion of touching a child, of helping them to take just one thing away from the classroom, of pushing them along to excellence. She is constantly looking for innovative methods to make the history she teaches exciting, meaningful, and relevant.

“The best measure of a teacher is in what her students accomplish. Watching students put together the puzzle pieces of life using history as a guide is a huge reward,” she said.

Her students have been able to do that since she has discovered that there are many ways to make information pertinent, even stimulating.

“I like to show them how fun it is to learn,” Wallace said.

Her students recently made commercials for the 19th amendment (right to vote) issue.

“They can take their own experiences and keep it relevant,” Wallace said.

There are plenty of other fun ways to learn in Wallace’s class, including the teenage favorite, text messaging.

“Rather than copy notes or vocabulary definitions, my students play Pictionary or charades to develop understanding of key terms or concepts,” Wallace said. “Students draw, debate and impersonate. Using reproductions of an 1896 Sears Catalog, students furnish a pioneer cabin. Studies of key Civil War battles often involve the use of toy soldiers. To compare and contrast administrations, students create text-message conversations between presidents. In addition to the tried and true School House Rock video, this year I have added hip-hop songs to the bag of tricks I use to enhance student interest.”History lessons are pretty much student-led in Wallace’s classroom.

“My classroom is very studentcentered, and I am seldom at the front delivering a lecture. My goal is to be more of a facilitator to guide students while they manage their learning.

“The best way to learn is by doing and having fun, so my students are frequently engaged in projects, or they themselves are responsible for teaching parts of the lesson to the rest of the class. Rather than simply reading, memorizing or analyzing the Declaration of Independence, my students create their own declarations of independence stating their complaints against the ‘tyrannical’ principal or the ‘ wicked’teacher just as the founders listed complaints against the king. By giving them permission to complain and whine, students know I empathize with them. And along the way, they learn the structure and motivation behind the actual Declaration of Independence.”

Wallace invites others to get a glimpse at why teaching is a calling for her.

“I encourage the public to take a second look at their schools,” she said. “You’ll see terrific kids. You’ll see kids who are learning more in high school than some of us did in college. You’ll see some kids who are making it entirely on their own. You’ll see your future and our country’s future. And you will be very pleasantly surprised by what you find.”

Three Rivers, Pages 125, 126 on 04/20/2008