“It was at that moment I realized that all I can control is what happens in my classroom and make every moment count,” said Roberta Smiley, a third grade teacher at Riverview Elementary.
The moment to which she is referring is the day she got a call informing her that one of her second grade students had committed suicide. Only in her third year of teaching at the time, she was faced with the harsh reality that once her students leave her classroom, anything can happen.
This lesson is one she has taken to heart fully and now implements daily in the way she runs her classroom, which is one of the things that makes her so unique in the education system.
“I can’t control where they came from, but I can help them get to where they’re going,” said Smiley.
Smiley, who previously taught in Cincinnati, is a graduate of Fairfield High and Miami University. She spent her first few years teaching younger grades until a door opened at Riverview. Now, in her ninth year of teaching, Smiley looks at every day with her students as an opportunity to help them grow and learn to believe in themselves.
“I always tell them that in my room I have doctors, lawyers, and even the future president,” said Smiley. “They always say the president can’t be here, and I have to tell them ‘it could be you!”
A key way Smiley reaches her students is by overcoming barriers caused by various learning styles. Smiley incorporates whole-brain teaching into her class, which focuses on the many ways the brain retains information.
“The brain learns by hearing, saying, seeing, and doing,” said Smiley. “I try to meet kids where they’re at so everyone feels successful in one lesson.”
For example, this means that if the students are learning a vocabulary word, Ms. Smiley will say the vocabulary word, have the word visible to the students, demonstrate what the word means using a gesture of some kind, and then have the students repeat the word and gesture back to her.
“All kids don’t learn in one way, so I can’t teach in just one way,” Smiley explained.
Keeping her students engaged is a priority, and Ms. Smiley has come up with several creative ways to encourage a desire to learn.
Once a week, the blinds are drawn and flashlights are distributed to the class. The students are free to find any spot around the room and read a book of their choosing for what has been dubbed Flashlight Friday. Another activity that always get the class excited to participate is creative writing. The students are shown a funny picture and must write a story describing what is taking place in the photo. At the end, students can sit in the ‘share chair’ and read their writings to their classmates.
“They’re starting to read their stories like I read my read-aloud,” said Smiley. “Even my quiet kids will raise their hands and want to share.”
Another focus for Smiley is her students’ ability to dream.
“As a kid I always dreamed,” said Smiley. “These kids don’t think that far. They don’t know that they can do the impossible.”
In Ms. Smiley’s class, she pushes ‘The Power of Yet’ to help students understand that although they may not be able to do something right now, the door is open for them to achieve anything they want to if they are willing to work for it.
That same motivation is something that carries over when it comes to communicating with parents.
“I try to touch base with parents and be more than just bad news,” said Smiley. “I want them to know that I think their child is amazing and a rock star in my classroom.”
Ms. Smiley attributes her positive mindset to an experience she had as a shy high school student when a teacher asked her to participate in a competition. Although it was out of her comfort zone, she agreed and succeeded. Smiley has always recognized the role her teacher played in making that achievement possible, and that sparked the desire to become a teacher.
“She encouraged me and saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Smiley reflected. “I did something that was deemed impossible in my eyes and I want to do that for another child.”
Every student has his or her own story, and Ms. Smiley makes it a point to learn each one. Although she can only control what happens in her classroom, she sees the importance of maximizing that time so that students know how much she values them and sees their inner rock star.
“I’ll always be your biggest cheerleader,” she said. “Those things that you think mean nothing will be the things they always remember.”