SUCCESS STORY: Michigan's Teacher of the Year

By Chris Andrews

OKEMOS — Miniature houses line the walls of the classroom one week, complete with electric circuitry that the teacher’s young engineering students have designed, tested, revised and re-revised before the lights went on and they earned their electrical permits.

A week later, students walk through a huge tunnel to enter the class and discover they’re in outer space.
Welcome to the third grade in Robb Stephenson’s classroom, a classroom of extreme makeovers, of song and science, of passion and learning.

“It’s a little bit over the top as far as the lessons I do and the units I do,” Stephenson said in a recent interview in his Wardcliff Elementary School classroom. “I have really high expectations for kids, but at the same time, I also believe that students can handle very rigorous content as long as it’s presented in a meaningful way.”

Stephenson is Michigan’s teacher of the year, and it’s possible that before long he will be America’s teacher of the year. And why not? His students — his third grade students — are doing the work of electrical and mechanical engineers, crafting a classroom Constitution, building windmills, writing personification stories about Superturkeys. This spring they’ll present their own spring parent conferences, with Stephenson as a witness sharing their learning.

Stephenson, who was named the state’s top teacher last May, is one of four finalists for national Teacher of the Year. The winner will be announced in April.

Tara Lulich, whose son Nick is in Stephenson’s class, said Stephenson has “a remarkable ability to making everything fun and interesting.”

“He doesn’t stand up at a blackboard and teach them about space. His entire room is the space unit,” said Lulich. “It brings it alive for the kids when they can see it, feel it, touch it, smell it.”

School principal Noelle Palasty says Stephenson builds relationships with students that encourage them to do their best. “He connects with kids in a way that they are excited about learning,” she says.

Attached to the door , is the Class Constitution, which each new group of third graders adopts on its first day of class in an effort to “create a more perfect classroom.” This year’s Bill of Rights: “Be Safe, Be a Kind All-Star, Be Respectful.” In fact, students rarely act out, because they’re having too much fun.

“I tell the kids from the get-go a couple of things. I want you to always try your best, always treat others with respect, and you will have the greatest year ever,” he said. “It’s that simple.”

Stephenson has a special passion for innovation and creativity — especially when it comes to science and engineering, which is in the deep end of his passion pool. Thanks in large part to a voter-approved technology bond, his classroom has a Smartboard, hand-held clickers for pupils, and a document camera that allows him and his students to zoom in on materials during classroom projects.

He has been awarded a couple of grants to support his engineering program. He has been recognized as an elementary school teacher of the year by the Michigan Science Teachers Association and won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science.

In the back of his classroom stands his engineering cabinet chock full of materials students can use to build windmills, design rubber-band-propelled paddleboats or construct electrical circuitry for miniature houses. “They not only get turned on to engineering, they actually understand the field of engineering.” he said.

Stephenson’s undergraduate degree is in theater, and he once had visions of a career on stage. His career path veered off toward woodworking and eventually to education — after he was helping his landlord’s daughter with some math problems. Her mother, staring down from the balcony, said, ‘You’d make a pretty good teacher.’”

In the classroom, he is both educator and entertainer. He rewrites and performs songs — The “Johnny B. Good” refrain becomes “Go Tom. Tom Edison, Go Tom” in a multi-media presentation to kick off the electrical engineering project (The kids join in with their air guitars.) “Two-and-a-half minutes, and all of a sudden the kids are completely engaged, they’ve already got some content, and then I can go on with the rest of the assignment.”

Lulich says one of Stephenson’s strengths is his ability to support children in their own interests — in her son Nick’s case, his love of computers, movie-making and guitars.

“Nick comes home every day and his chest is puffed up because Mr. Stephenson had something great to say about him,” she says.

Stephenson said he truly believes that every individual has unique strengths. “The best part of my job is discovering what those aspects are and to make the child more aware of them.”

He recalled one student that he had heard would be a handful. He quickly learned the boy’s passion was “a naturalist” with a fascination for living things. And, especially, insects.

“He was fascinated with insects, let’s have him read about insects. He is fascinated about insects and living things, let’s have him write about it,” Stephenson recalled. “Let’s have him do authentic math investigation that is investigating right in his area of interest.

“All of a sudden, he realized maybe I haven’t been the best traditional student up until now, but I’m a smart kid, and I have got very special interests and areas where I can shine and excel,” Stephenson said. “It changed the way he viewed himself, and suddenly he starts realizing he is quite competent in many academic areas where he didn’t think he was.”

As teacher of the year, Stephenson attends Michigan State Board of Education meetings and is on top of the education issues of the day, including Obama’s Race to the Top educational reform plan and Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s early-retirement plan that could lead to an exodus of up to 39,000 school employees at the end of the school year.

He’s a strong supporter of universal preschool, and says research clearly shows the investment will pay off many times over. He’s a strong believer in the need for good data on student performance — not to punish teachers, but to help students, and to learn from what works.

He’s not sure whether merit pay would be helpful, though he says his wife sometimes asks him, “How long can you afford to keep teaching?”

“Would I mind being paid more? No I wouldn’t,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be the one to have to make the decision to say, I’ll pay you less. That would be troubling for me.”

He recognizes the early retirement plan will lead to the departure of many good teachers, but believes it will open the door for many others, including his permanent substitute who fills in when he’s engaged in Teacher-of-the-Year activities. He points out that Michigan exports thousands of talented teaching graduates every year, including many who would rather stay in the state.

“We are truly in financial crisis in the state, and I understand the governor’s reason for offering this because it’s just a matter of trying to get less expensive employees to survive through this uncertainty in these economic times,” he said. “I think it could really alleviate a lot of the problems that we’re facing in this state.”

Despite the financial woes, Stephenson remains excited about teaching, and the learning that goes on every day.

“There are many educators who are doing amazing things in the classroom,” he says. “That needs to be shared.”