THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090114
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 140 lines
IT WAS THE BOTTOM of the inning and the score was razor-close - three runs for the A's to two runs for the Mets.
Suddenly, the crowd erupted as Mets player No. 4 forced an A's error.
In the end, though, the Mets couldn't pull it out. The final score: A's 4, Mets 2.
The losing players weren't too disappointed, however. After all, participation in the game got them out of their usual math class.
The players were seventh-graders. The stadium was a classroom at Bayside Middle School. The umpire was their math teacher, 24-year-old Stacy L. Snyder.
The game was a ploy Snyder uses regularly to help kids grasp math concepts. It's among the things that recently led to her selection as Virginia's Sallie Mae First Class Teacher, a prestigious honor for first-year teachers granted annually by a panel of education experts appointed by the American Association of School Administrators. Snyder, who graduated in 1993 from a teacher training program at Syracuse University in New York state, began her career in Virginia Beach last year.
She got $1,500 and a trip to Washington. Her parents also bought her a trip to Aruba, partly to celebrate the award. She'll now represent Virginia, vying with other states' Sallie Mae winners for the national title.
Standing in the hallways shouting at kids to get to class, or scolding boys for critiquing her physique, Snyder is far from the stereotype of the kindly schoolmarm.
She's a tough-talking Pennsylvania native with big blond hair, who tells students and colleagues exactly what she thinks. She's assigned to hall duty, she says, because she's got the biggest mouth in the school. Cheerleading throughout college helped her develop that trait, so useful in a middle school where kids seem to mysteriously lose their hearing when the bell rings.
``I'm domineering,'' she said.
But Snyder is everything administrators look for in a teacher.
``I think the kids realize that she really has a genuine care for each kid that she teaches,'' said Bayside Middle School Principal Bruce Biehl. ``Those kids in that class don't have any low self-esteem when they're around her.
``She does set out the guidelines, the rules and also the expectations, which are high. She keeps them on task with the task at hand, and that really helps them.''
Biehl said that part of what makes Snyder a good teacher is her ability to adapt to the atmosphere of the classroom each day.
``You certainly go into a class with your lesson plan, and what you plan to teach in class that day, but you have to get a feel for how the students are at the time.
``She's ready to change at any time.''
Snyder's strict rules mean students spend every minute on schoolwork.
While other teachers give out handfuls of hall passes at a time, allowing kids to roam freely during class, Snyder rarely issues any passes during math. At homeroom or study hall times, she allows only one student at a time to leave for the bathroom or water fountain, sometimes watching them to make sure they don't dally.
Her philosophy: ``Kids respect structure.'' That way, they know she cares.
Her students recognize the distinction.
``She knows we can do it,'' said Deandos Billups, 13, a student in one of Snyder's seventh-grade math classes. ``And she believes in us. That's why she cracks down on us.''
Her softer side comes through when she talks about carefully planning lessons for her kids.
In her regular math classes, Snyder rarely uses the textbooks. They're banished to a shelf in the back of the room. Instead, she buys workbooks and assembles her own lessons.
``It's punishment to use the textbook,'' she said.
``At least two days a week, I try to do something fun with them,'' she said. ``I try to do things where the kids don't realize how much work they're doing.''
Like the baseball game. Snyder divides the students into two teams. The teams compete to solve math problems quickly and to be the first to grab a spongy, pink ball. The team that gets the ball advances in the game. It could mean a home run, or an out for the opposing team.
``This is the way I can get them to do 40 problems and they don't even know it,'' she said.
On the walls are charts listing homework assignments, and which ones students have completed or have yet to finish. That way, students can keep up with their own progress.
On a set of bookshelves in the back of the classroom, empty cereal boxes are stacked. Later in the year, when her classes are studying the concepts of area and perimeter, they'll build model historical buildings and write history reports about the buildings.
The plan is an example of a hot trend in education - lesson plans that teach kids multiple skills. Snyder's students will learn measuring and writing skills from the lesson.
``I think she's nice because she helps us a lot with our work,'' said 12-year-old Tashina Headen, a student in Snyder's first-bell class.
`And I get good grades in math.''
Her techniques appear to be working. Last year, all of her students passed the math portion of the state's Literacy Passport Test.
Snyder also is working to boost math skills schoolwide.
She convinced Bayside administrators to offer an algebra class for seventh-graders, on a pilot basis this year. She applied for and won the chance to teach that class, although there are still some kinks. She does not get to choose the kids who qualify, so some students come to the class unprepared for the material.
Snyder also is under a lot of pressure to make it work. She must teach the curricula for both seventh-grade math and algebra in time for the kids to take the same end-of-year test eighth-grade algebra students will take.
``I really don't know'' whether it will work, she said. ``I'm trying.
``It always feels like I'm cramming and pushing, cramming and pushing. But the kids hate to fail.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Color on the Cover: Bayside Middle's Stacy Snyder is state's top
first-year teacher
Stacy Snyder, 24, who teaches math to seventh-graders at Bayside
Middle School, was selected as Virginia's Sallie Mae First Class
Teacher, a prestigious honor that could lead to national
recognition. The award earned her $1,500 - and a trip to Aruba,
courtesy of her parents.
Seen here talking with fellow teacher Tracey Bullard about students
she saw roaming the halls, Snyder says she was assigned to hall duty
because she has the biggest mouth in the school. ``I'm
domineering,'' she says.
Snyder convinced Bayside administrators to offer an algebra class
for seventh-graders, on a pilot basis this year. Now she's under
pressure to make it work because she applied for and won the chance
to teach that class.
Snyder consoles a student having a problem in class.
She knows we can do it,'' said Deandos Billups, 13, a student in one
of Snyder's seventh-grade math classes. ``And she believes in us.
That's why she cracks down on us.''
Synder hands out materials for a math game. ``This is the way I can
get them to do 40 problems and they don't even know it,'' she says.
by CNB