| Ozark Upper Elementary Science Teacher Lisa Spector |
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| Written by Michele Skalicky | |
| Thursday, 25 September 2008 | |
In this segment of KSMU's Sense of Community Series, Michele Skalicky profiles Lisa Spector, science teacher at Ozark Upper Elementary. Listen in  MP3 format Roger Young, a biology professor at Drury, nominated Lisa Spector to be featured in our Sense of Community Series this week. He wrote “she has boundless energy, which, when combined with her creative imagination, enables her to bring science to live for her students.”
When you walk in during the middle of one of the 6th grade science classes that she teaches at Ozark Upper Elementary, you can see that that’s true.
The students were in the middle of a science experiment in which they made their own copy solution out of vanilla and dish soap and were transferring comics to white sheets of paper to hang on their lockers.
Spector tells me that her approach to teaching is hands-on. The experiment the students were doing that day was just one of many that they will do during this school year. Students were quick to tell me that their teacher makes science fun.
Spector is in her 7th year of teaching. She knew at a young age that she might like to teach someday. She started out in watershed management with the thought in the back of her mind that someday she might like to teach. When she returned to get her elementary education degree while her now 17-year-old son was a small child, she thought she might like to teach kindergarten or first grade, but after student teaching under 6th grade teacher Paula Young, who is one of her co-workers now, Spector changed her mind.
Spector is passionate about science and about her kids becoming science literate and wanting to learn for the rest of their lives. She works towards that in a variety of ways. As you walk into her classroom, crime scene tape hangs across her door, even though the crime has been solved by her students. Recently Bobbin’ Head and Fraidy Cat—2 characters in Spector’s classroom—went missing and the students had to find out who took them. She says that brings science to life for her students.
She tries to bring in people from the scientific community to talk to her students so they can see how a love for science can be turned into a career. A sign in her classroom reads “It’s all Science.” She encourages the kids to stump the teacher and try to find something that’s not science.
She says, whether or not students choose a career in science, she wants them to apply what they’ve learned in all aspects of life.
Spector took a couple of years off from teaching to travel and sell her art—she loves to draw—but being an educator was what she was meant to do and she was soon back in the classroom. She tries as much as possible to incorporate art into the science curriculum. Spector says she hopes she’s having a lasting impact on her students.
Related Items:Ozarks Teachers Recommend Ways to Interest Students in SchoolHighlandville Elementary School: Hilary Mertens Greenwood Laboratory School Fourth Grade Teacher Shae Johnson Encouraging a Love of Science in Girls and Young Women[Part_1] Becky Alexander Teaches First Grade at the Summit Preparatory School |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 25 September 2008 ) |
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