Students at Barrett Elementary School have a give-and-take with Laurie Sullivan, and no one is allowed to be bored. “I really like to get children when they’re young, excited about learning,” she said. “It’s an enjoyable way to spend my day because the kids are happy, for the most party the teachers are happy and it’s a great profession because it’s so rewarding.”
Sullivan is the coordinator and teacher of Barrett’s “Project Discovery,” an interdisciplinary program that uses technology and creative projects to help students learn math and science. Now she’s also Arlington’s Teacher of the Year.
School Superintendent Robert Smith presented Sullivan with the award Thursday, April 24. Smith said he felt “very thankful and very humbled” to present the award to someone who so inspires her students and her fellow teachers. “Her colleagues see her as a gift to Barrett’s staff,” he said.
Anna Bowman has taught alongside Sullivan for the last decade and has seen her dedication first-hand. “Laurie has an innate understanding of how children learn,” said Bowman. “She works extra hard to make all of us better teachers and students better learners.”
Sullivan said her efforts come from a genuine love of what she’s doing. “I can’t think of any other job I would rather do other than teaching,” she said. Working with students is a “cycle of learning.”
She comes to class excited about the lesson, she said, and students feed off that excitement. The more they get into the lesson, the more it encourages her, and the cycle continues.
WORKING ON Project Discovery gives Sullivan plenty of opportunities for excitement. This year she helped kindergarten and third-grade students learn about life cycles by watching chicks and butterflies.
She is preparing to team up with Potomac Overlook Regional Park to install a solar collector in the school courtyard, to teach students about renewable energy. She worked with students to plan and build other aspects of the courtyard, which now includes plants, a waterfall and a turtle pond.
“I feel that we can still have fun with the curriculum,” she said. Many critics have said Standards of Learning tests have taken away teachers’ freedom to design creative and entertaining lessons, but Sullivan says that’s not true—SOLs just provides a basic level of instruction, which teachers can exceed. “The curriculum builds and spirals back,” she said. “It’s helped to align the curriculum.”
Sullivan tries to find ways to connect SOL materials from one subject to another. Earlier this year, Sullivan’s students made an animated documentary on Apollo 11 while learning about space exploration. Not content to leave the lesson as just a science topic, several students worked in English classes to write a narrative to go along with the animation. That kind of interdisciplinary collaboration is what Barrett is all about, Sullivan said.
She credited the rest of Barrett’s staff with making her Teacher of the Year award possible. “I have such a wonderful team to work with,” she said. Sullivan was born and raised in California and now lives in Fairfax with her husband and two sons. She began her teaching career 16 years ago and has been at Barrett for the last 10.
FOLLOWING THE AWARD presentation, school board members voted unanimously to proceed with a construction contract award for renovation of Yorktown High School. The renovation will add a third floor and 21 classrooms and improve indoor and outdoor academic and athletic facilities.
One aspect of the plan will come in for further review. Originally, the plan called for lighting on the school’s six new tennis courts. Homeowners nearby objected to that, which they said would mean more noise and bright stadium lights intruding into their homes from after-dark matches.
“There are simply too many other impacts occurring at this site that the neighbors are being asked to bear,” said David Haring, president of the Yorktown Civic Association. School staff presented several options the board can take when they consider voting on the issue at their meeting Thursday, May 8.
Board members can delay voting, in order to study the situation further. Smith recommended delaying, or moving ahead with plans to light the courts despite objections from the civic association. Lighting would create minimal effects on neighbors, say school staff, because of privacy fences, light shields and wind screens that would also be constructed.
Other options include moving practices for the Yorktown tennis teams to Williamsburg Middle School or to facilities not managed by the school system. But that could mean students would have to travel from Yorktown to the Virginia Highlands Park in Crystal City every afternoon.
“One of the challenges for me is to make sure we don’t worry or antagonize a whole new set of people,” said Elaine Furlow, chair of the school board.
BOARD MEMBERS also heard a report on how the schools’ legislative initiatives fared in the recent Virginia General Assembly session.
The following are some of the initiatives, and the results.
*Increase in cigarette tax: Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-31) introduced a bill to raise the state tax to 60 cents per pack. It was defeated.
*Increase funding for at-risk four-year olds: No additional funding was secured.
*Use Statewide Average Teacher Salary in state funding formula: Bill was defeated.
*Opposition to required postings in public schools: Instead of fighting previous attempts of the General Assembly to require postings of the Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust,” Del. Bob Brink (D-48) decided to fight fire with fire and introduced legislation requiring schools to post the Bill of Rights. That bill passed.
*Equal taxing authority for counties and cities: Legislation was introduced but defeated.
*In-state tuition for undocumented immigrants: A bill passed that would allow undocumented immigrants to attend in-state colleges and universities but would require them to pay out-of-state tuition. Gov. Mark Warner (D) amended the bill to provide in-state tuition to some undocumented students who meet certain requirements, but has not yet decided whether to sign the bill into law, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature. School board members decided Thursday to draft a letter to the Governor outlining their position on the subject.