Teachers Who Dazzle

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The story below is from our July/August 2022 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you! 

Meet four teachers striving to make a difference for students in our region.

Many Roanokers once were enlightened by teachers who were truly brilliant in the classroom. Today our area still features many instructors who are capable of that same dazzling ability. Here are profiles of four of them.

Botetourt County

Lord Botetourt principal Beth Mast proclaims that one of the most gifted teachers at her high school is science instructor, Dr. John McLaughlin.   

“He’s had a lot of positive influence on young people who have graduated from here, especially the ones who went on to become teachers or scientists,” she says. “A really strong point of Dr. Mac’s is his creativity.”

Several examples of that ingenuity can be found in McLaughlin’s classroom activities.

“I like lessons that involve the student’s point of view, as well as taking their science content outside the classroom,” he says.  “For example, I like to have my anatomy students complete their histology lab on different body tissues. Then I have them go out into the world and take pictures of objects or whatever might have the same structure and function.  

“I allow the students to be as creative and conceptual as possible.  If they can explain to me why they think the pic is a good choice, then as the instructor I can tell if they understand the basic foundational information about that tissue. This activity also gives me a glimpse into what students see around them.”

The 57-year-old McLaughlin, who has taught for 30 years, says he prefers the Socratic method of teaching and this shows in how he communicates. 

“One of the most profound professors I ever had made the comment that if we didn’t leave the classroom frustrated, then he wasn’t doing his job because we only begin to think critically when we’re uncomfortable,” McLaughlin says. “What I find most memorable are the conversations my students and I have in class.  The whole idea of having a safe place where students and myself can discuss ideas is so amazing and a real strength of the educational system. What I may not think is memorable could be really transformative for a student.” 

Junior Jonah Clark took Dr. McLaughlin’s Dual Enrollment Biology class.

“What I like best about his classes is that he tries to communicate with us on several levels,” Clark says. “We’re both fans of board games, so we joke about that sometimes. While teaching, Dr. McLaughlin has this amazing ability to make seemingly boring topics interesting. For example, when we were studying micro-organisms, I got really interested in enzymes of all things.

Salem City

Mike Stevens, communications director for the City of Salem, describes Amy Johnston as “bright, talented, and creative.” The 37-year-old has been teaching at George Washington Carver her entire 15-year-career and currently instructs a blended first and second grade class. Just what is this hybrid-type group?

“The philosophy behind this class is that children are complex, they learn at different rates, and that by putting kids of different ages together, they can learn from each other, especially through project-based learning,” Johnston says. “We’ve also found that because of the Pandemic, some of the kids have learning gaps.

“So with our blended classes, some children can be leaders as collaborators, for example, and others can be leaders with their reading or math skills. The goals are for every child’s overall learning to be accelerated and for those learning gaps to be eliminated.”

Johnston believes that one of her most innovative lesson plans involves her students operating concession stands. In groups of three, youngsters become purveyors of such snacks as regular and pink lemonade, popcorn, chips and pretzels as well as having a group in charge of making change.

“In this lesson, students learn about being producers and consumers, the relationship of goods and services, and they also improve their math skills because they have to learn how to count coins,” she says.

Another imaginative unit involves the young people studying animals. Johnston relates that her young charges have to research where the animals live and then position them on a large globe, as well as learn how to research and find information on these creatures’ life cycles. Finally, class members have to devise their own non-fiction booklet on their animals.

Roanoke City

Scott Stanley has spent all 12 years of his teaching career at Fairview Elementary School and says he can’t imagine ever wanting to work anywhere else. That despite the fact that he has to commute almost two hours from and to his Rocky Mount home. The 34-year-old fifth grade teacher believes his math lessons are often his most creative ones. 

“Math has always been my favorite subject to teach, especially anything to do with statistics,” he says. “One of the skills I have to teach involves the terms mean, median, mode and range. Instead of putting numbers on the board and have the kids find the answers, I turn the lesson into a hands-on game.

“I created a version of the old TV show “A Minute to Win It,” where my students have a minute to complete a certain task. For example, I place popsicle sticks and marshmallows on their desks, and they have 60 seconds to use the sticks to pick up marshmallows and put them in a cup. Then we record all the data and use the terms to understand that data.”

To make sure that none of his young people feel bad about struggling to gather their popsicle sticks, Stanley always adds a column where the tally was lower than the last place child’s efforts.

Another lesson concerns the order of operations. In fifth grade, students have to master the concepts of parentheses, division, multiplication, addition and subtraction. Several years ago in order to learn the idea, one of Stanley’s students devised the pneumonic “Purple Doughnuts Make Awesome Snacks.” The Fairview teacher created a lesson around that memory aid.

“I combine red and blue food coloring to make a purple vanilla icing, then go to Dunkin’ Donuts, buy the little holes, put the icing on and give them to the students as a treat,” he says. “If the students enjoy the snack, they go with the original pneumonic. If they don’t care for it, they go with Purple Doughnuts Make Awful Snacks.”

Roanoke County

As a Lord Botetourt teacher myself, one of the sublime joys is when former students become teachers themselves. Such is the case with Courtney Cutright, a seventh grade English teacher at Northside Middle School. The feeling of pleasure becomes even better when Chuck Lionberger, director of communications for Roanoke County Public Schools, describes her as a “wonderful choice” to be the division’s representative as a creative instructor.

“I think one of the lessons that I’m most proud of is my poetry portfolio,” Cutright says. “When I introduce it, I get a lot of grunts and groans and ‘poetry is hard and boring’ comments.

Then I ask them if they like music and all of them say they do. I next tell them that all songs are poems that have been set to music. By the end of the unit, they’re writing their own poems and often asking if we can do something like this again.”

Cutright says that to make the lesson succeed, she has her youngsters read “Love That Dog” by Sharon Creech. The book involves how a young boy evolves from a poetry hater to someone who appreciates this literary form. From reading this work, the Northside Middle students learn to write poems in such genres as free verse, limericks, haikus and acrostics.

Additionally, the students employ their laptops to create a Powerpoint of their work which often involves adding photos and music to their literary creations.

“The students are in control of what they devise, which is good for their creativity and overall development,” Cutright says. “To see that growth from poetry haters to poets themselves is a wonderful experience for me.”

Another of the teacher’s favorite lessons involves “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton who began the work when she was 15 and finished it at 17. The 1967 novel involves a cast of social misfits who don’t fit in at school or society as a whole.

“I have a lot of reluctant readers who won’t even pick up a book,” Cutright says. “But when they start reading this novel and learn that Hinton was not much older than they are when she started it, they really get into it. To enhance the unit, I show videos and pictures of 1960s hairstyles, music and clothing styles. I also show You Tube clips of the Beatles and Elvis performing.”

Throughout the year, Cutright showcases her favorite books with students and uses this lesson again after finishing “The Outsiders.” Her formerly reluctant readers are often now much more willing to give a book a chance.

Dazzling teachers are still very much present in the classrooms of the Roanoke Valley. And they are doing their very best to educate the next generation.

The story above is from our July/August 2022. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!