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Top teacher 'makes learning really fun'

Energy and enthusiasm help propel Powell Middle School's Rosemarie Shaeffer to teacher of the year honors.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published February 15, 2005

SPRING HILL - It is difficult to determine who has more energy in Rosemarie Shaeffer's gifted education and social studies classes at Powell Middle School.

Is it the students? They are not fighting off sleep, but instead buzzing around a handful of tables. They talk to each other, help each other with assignments, even plan lessons.

Or is it their teacher? On Monday afternoon, Shaeffer is whirling from one group to the next - helping some students prepare a table on Microsoft Word at one end of her classroom, hurrying back to answer a phone call, greeting a school administrator.

The answer isn't certain, but it is lear the fun, intense atmosphere played a key role in helping Shaeffer win recognition as the Hernando County Education Foundation's Teacher of the Year on Saturday.

"All my colleagues told me it was the first time they had seen me speechless," Shaeffer, 49, said Monday.

Her selection is a bright spot in a troubled year for Powell, which was thrust into an administrative limbo in November after principal Michael Ransaw was suspended. Earl Deen has been named the interim principal.

But the students in Shaeffer's classes don't semm to feel much anxiety. Shaeffer's students confide in her, share their opinions and even discuss their frustrations with other teachers.

Part of the reason for that relationship comes from the responsibility Shaeffer entrusts in her students. She says she believes in having students teach each other, not in having them copy down her notes from the blackboard.

"Peers teaching peers has just been me forever," Shaeffer said.

As she described her enthusiasm for teaching, Shaeffer recalled her own experiences as a student. As a first- and second-grader, she remembered being "hell on wheels." But after being asked to help teach a class as a third-grader, her perspective changed.

She said she wonders if that moment helped shape her philosophy of empowering students rather than teaching down to them.

"It's good (to put) them in charge of their own learning," Shaeffer said.

The students concur. Brian Holland, 13, fresh from teaching his peers on the era of President Thomas Jefferson, said Shaeffer "makes learning really fun."

Shaeffer has taught in Hernando for 17 years. She taught for another seven years in Lake County and in Illinois, and holds degrees from Hillsborough Community College, Eastern Illinois University and the University of South Florida.

In a letter of recommendation, Powell officials noted that 14 different students had nominated Shaeffer for the honor. The letters were filled with praise for Shaeffer, with one student writing that she "cares about us."

Powell administrators also noted the work Shaeffer did outside the classroom. She sponsors Junior Beta Club and student government as well as coaching the school's award-winning Brain Bowl team.

"She exudes a love for teaching and a zest for life in general," Powell officials wrote.

--Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 352 848-1431.

[Last modified February 15, 2005, 01:16:18]