Innovation in Lennox Classroom Is State Teacher of the Year’s Secret

Shortly after Rhoda Coleman’s fifth-grade class settles in, she jumps into a lesson on slavery. Books are opened, minds are tuned in and volunteers get ready to read.

Cassandra Gonzales is only a few sentences into the chapter when things turn chaotic. Eric Barba strolls around the back of the room. Rene Morales flips his ruler at the ceiling. Diana Herrera and Gracie Prado rummage through a classmate’s desk.

Coleman, a Buford Elementary School teacher in Lennox and one of five recipients of the 1995 California Teacher of the Year award, watches disorder swirl about her.

“What are you doing?” she asks the errant students.

“Throwing my ruler around,” Rene says.

“Walking around the room,” Eric says.

“Looking in her desk,” Diana says.

Coleman, 47, looks puzzled. “What’s happening here?” she asks. When no one offers an answer, she starts a round of questions about rights.

This bit of classroom chaos, Coleman reveals, was planned. It was a way to show how one person can take away another’s rights.

“So what does this have to do with slavery?” she asks, smoothly shifting to the topic at hand. “We have natural rights, but for (slaves), life was just the opposite.”

It is a typical day in Coleman’s classroom. Every lesson is a hands-on experience packed with multiculturalism and different points of view.

“We learn about different cultures and how they used to live and what they used to eat,” student Daniel Mabson said. “Most teachers would just show you a picture, but we write stories.”

In her 26 years in the classroom, Coleman has taught almost every elementary grade, but she found her niche in the fifth grade. Since she started teaching at Buford Elementary in 1969, Coleman has never given up on finding fresh and exciting ways to teach. In fact, she often spends weekends sifting through bookshelves, soaking up information at seminars or collecting historical objects so she can keep her students interested.

“If I had to teach the same way every year, I would get bored,” she said. “And then the students would get bored.”

To keep a high level of interest, Coleman blends laser disc and CD-ROM technology, art, music, literature and historical paraphernalia with the textbook to make the lesson more real.

“There’s a reason she’s the California Teacher of the Year,” said Tom Johnstone, Buford Elementary School principal. “And it goes way beyond the classroom.”

But Coleman doesn’t want to talk about her award. She would rather show pictures of her students’ recent production of “The Nutcracker.”

“Every day we do an activity so we don’t get bored,” student Carmen Casillas said. “She tries her best to show us everything we’re supposed to learn and more. She wants us to learn and to have fun.”

Throughout the year, Coleman attends conferences and seminars to keep up with the latest in teaching, technology and trends.

“If I didn’t keep up with everything, I’d be left in the dust and my students would miss out,” she said.

But this doesn’t mean Coleman tosses out the old techniques. In fact, she’ll often spice up an old idea by connecting it with new ideas. It was 10 years ago that she first learned about “I Am” exercises. Back then, it was used to help students talk about their feelings. Coleman has her students slip into the role of a character and write from that character’s perspective.

For the lesson on slavery, Coleman had her students write an “I Am” exercise titled “I Am an African Slave.” The students were presented with open-ended statements: I wonder , I feel , I hear , I see , I want .

“I wonder why they whip / I hear the crying of my people / I see the dark in the room / I want to be free some day,” Carmen wrote.

Every lesson ends with a writing exercise in which students are encouraged to come up with their own ideas.

“They don’t even know they’re learning because she makes it so fun,” said Esperanza Andrade-Banachowski, a Buford Elementary School counselor.

When the Teacher of the Year selection committee observed Coleman’s classroom, she was immersed in a lesson on Christopher Columbus. After brainstorming, the class began a sensory experience from one of four perspectives: Columbus, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, a Native American and one of the ship’s crew.

“I am the famous admiral of the Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria. I am the true and only one that saw America first. So all the people that live in America should at least thank me,” Carmen wrote.

“Hi my name is Broken Teeth. There were strange people that discovered America. They claimed the land but we were already living in America. . . . We thought they were spirits. They came from the sky. Their skin was white as the moon,” Diana Fonua wrote.

Coleman said seeing things from different perspectives is fundamental to her teaching.

“She’s the kind of person who asks, ‘How can I make them learn?’ ” Andrade-Banachowski said. “That’s the sign of a special teacher. She makes it her responsibility to teach them.”

And Coleman expects a lot back from her students. She wants them to grow up to be caring, giving citizens--and to know that one person can make a difference.

“I want these kids to have a love of learning, a strong curiosity and a lot of confidence,” she said. “I want them to feel like anything is possible and that they can have anything they want to have.”