TEACHER'S CORNER: BARBARA DUNCAN FINDS TEACHING A JOY, PRIVILEGE

"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." -- Robert Louis Stevenson.

Following her favorite quotation, Barbara Duncan offers her sixth-grade students a number of things in their Chaffee classroom including painting, singing, cooking and experimenting with learning.

"Painting is a vital activity for expressing ideas and learning about science and language arts," she said. "We also sing songs to tapes and pianos, which assists students in learning different languages."

Music is used in the math center to teach memorization.

Students in the cooking center whip up a tasty and nutritious treat while learning about math, science, language arts and recipes.

For the past 10 years, a science fair has been held for sixth-graders. Duncan describes the fair as similar to Christmas. Students are very excited. "Students and parents become involved in a learning situation that is rewarding to each," she said.

"The most gratifying thing to me as a classroom teacher is when a student realizes he or she has the ability to improve his or her grades," Duncan said. "That is when a student begins to enjoy learning."

As a teacher, Duncan wants to stretch the student's mine and encourage the student to search for solutions.

"Teaching is a joy and I refer to it as a privilege," she said. "To quote a beautiful and meaningful thought, `Children are a message we as teachers send. The message we may not see.'"

Duncan lives what she teaches. She is involved in a number of things: Ukrainian egg painting, collecting bells, learning to fly an airplane, working with the sixth-grade Junior Astronaut Club, playing piano, studying the Bible and reading the works of Robert Louis Stevenson.