TEACHER'S CORNER: JULIE ANTILL TEACHES THE FIFTH GRADE AT JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN CAPE

Julie Antill believes that children learn best from experience.

So her fifth grade students at Jefferson Elementary School benefit from her philosophy by taking part in lots of different activities.

"I try to present as many hands-on experiences as possible," Antill said. "I enjoy trying to make learning exciting and fun.

"This year, I am planning to use cooperative grouping activities in which students work together to achieve a common goal."

Antill is in her second year of teaching at Jefferson School. She also was a first grade teacher's assistant for a year at Jefferson.

"I come from a long line of educators," she said. "My mother and grandmother were both elementary teachers in Southeast Missouri."

After graduating from high school in Steele, Antill attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn. and Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colo. where she studied music therapy.

In 1987, after her children started school, Antill went back to school. She completed her elementary certification at Southeast Missouri State University in 1989.

Her students are going to participate in an inventors convention.

"My students along with the other fifth grade class at Jefferson will be displaying student inventions to go along with our reading cluster entitled ~~`Marvelous Machines,'" she said.

Antill is married to Bob Antill who works for the Gibson Center and is a student at Southeast.

They have two children, Matthew, a seventh-grade student at L.J. Schultz Middle School, and Cody, a sixth-grade student at Washington Elementary School.

Her interests include sewing, reading and spending time with her family.