Stevenson Elementary School teacher Paula Fraser lives for the moment when she sees the light go on in her students’ eyes. It’s the moment they truly grasp a concept and can put what they have learned into motion.
That very thought brings tears to her eyes.
A teacher of the PRISM Program for fourth and fifth graders at Stevenson Elementary School for the past 23 years, Fraser is ready to trade one classroom for another. The award-winning teacher is set to retire at the end of the 2010 school year and pursue a doctorate at the University of Washington in philosophy.
Fraser’s decision to retire was prompted by the PRISM Program’s move next year to Spiritridge Elementary and by her own desire to continue learning.
“I want to be young enough when I retire to really enjoy my time and I have always considered myself a lifelong learner,” she explained.
Fraser will walk away from teaching with a long list of notable awards including Walter P. Kistler Science Teacher of the Year award by the Foundation for the Future in 2007. In 2000, she earned the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Award on genetics, genomics and “genethics” for Washington state and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 1999. The list goes on.
Fraser’s approach to teaching has earned her a reputation within Bellevue Schools. In her classroom, the students participate in terms of stars and wishes. Stars are given for things done well by the students and wishes are things that can be improved upon.
“I think I am a teacher who really pushes rigor, but I also feel it’s so important to think about what type of human beings these children will grow up to be and you get that with the humanities and the social sciences,” she said. “It’s important to teach these children using a number of dimensions including history, narrative and philosophy. They may be young, but they get it. They really get it.”
According to Fraser, sometimes all it takes is simply stepping out of the way and allowing the students to learn in their own way.
“We have a thing in the classroom that reads: ‘Socrates – ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.’ It’s something to be praised when you realize, if you don’t know something, you can ask questions to discover the answer,” she explained. “We have a philosophy in the classroom that everyone, even the teacher, can ask questions.”
For their final essay this year, Fraser has asked her students to write about what it means to be human. It may seem a tall order for a classroom of fifth graders, but Fraser is confident her students are well prepared to explore the question from a philosophical, biological and political standpoint.
“It concerns me when I see emphasis on checklist learning,” she said. “In this program the students are capable of the rigor, but it’s important to expose the students to the human story and have them actively participate on the stage of life. I want them to go into this world not only with the skills, but also a deep understanding of what it means to be human.”
Lindsay Larin can be reached at 425-453-4602.
