TEACHER'S CORNER: TEACHER SPRINTS TO SUCCESS

ORAN -- When a fourth-grade student challenged Diana Siebert to a foot race on the playground, the youngster expected an easy win.

Siebert tried to beg off with excuses about wearing a dress and high heeled shoes, but the student's persistence paid off. Siebert and the youngster sprinted across the pavement with students cheering.

"I surprised the whole class that their old teacher could run that far," she said. Her secret? Siebert ran track in high school.

She teaches fifth grade at Guardian Angel School in Oran.

She likes to encourage laughter and light-heartedness in her classroom. She also uses a cooperative learning style. Student desks are arranged in groups of three or four. Students help each other as they do their work and some assignments are done in the group setting.

"This technique can help boost self-esteem for the students because there is some way in which each student can help the other student," she explained.

Students also participate in peer teaching. "Sometimes a fellow student can explain the skill and the student will understand it better," she said.

Siebert said she knew as a child that teaching would be her career. "Many a summer day we would play school in the hallway of our house," she recalled. "I would be the teacher and I usually had to beg my three brothers and two sisters to be the students."

Four of the six siblings pursued teaching as a career.

As a teacher, Siebert gets to share a part of each student's life every day. "They are able to share their stories with me," she said. "Being a good listener to a child is very important since family life is so busy these days.

"I can be there to help them when they feel bad or are upset about something. Being a teacher is the most gratifying profession to me."