Class Acts: A Q&A With Sheila Blair

Sheila Blair was nominated by Gina Satariano for Class Acts. Satariano said she "watched (Blair) turn a problem child into a student that wants to learn and be a part of the process." Blair incorporates new ideas and situations to make all students feel part of the class and is truly committed to every student, Satariano said.

Name: Sheila Blair

Age: 60

City of residence: Modesto

Occupation: Second-grade teacher at Mary Lou Dieterich Elementary

Family: I am married and have two grown children. My daughter and her husband live in Modesto and have two children, Brynna and Owain, and my son and his wife live in Massachusetts and have three children, Sophie, Nolan and Julia.

Background: I raised my family in Half Moon Bay and worked for over 25 years for Pacific Bell in the Bay Area. I graduated from the University of San Francisco while I worked. My bachelor’s degree was in organizational behavior. I moved to Modesto and was an engineering manager when I retired in the early ‘90s. I later went back to school and earned my multiple subject teaching credential at San Francisco State University in 1999.

Teaching experience: This is my 10th year of teaching, and I have taught kindergarten, first and second grades. I currently teach at Mary Lou Dieterich, and previously taught at Stanislaus Union Elementary.

Why did you get into teaching? I started teaching as my second career. I had wanted to teach since my children were young but had never felt confident about changing occupations. Once my family was grown and I had “retired,” I was more comfortable about exploring a new path.

What is your favorite thing about being a teacher? I love watching the students grow academically, emotionally and socially. It is also exciting to be involved in the field of education today and to be learning new things all the time.

What is the most challenging part of your job? All teachers in California are being challenged by the economic crisis in our state and in our nation. In many cases, the families of the children in our schools are feeling the impact of this financial catastrophe. Additionally, there are huge shortfalls in California’s current budget proposal, and the heaviest cuts are in education. We are all being challenged by trying to develop ways to reduce costs and yet maintain quality programs for the children.

Favorite teaching tool or activity in the classroom: I enjoy reading with my students and getting children enthusiastic about reading and about authors and illustrators. I want students to know that authors and illustrators are real people, just like them. We can all be authors and illustrators. I enjoy utilizing reading incentives, too, like Pizza Hut’s “Book It!”, “Dr. Seuss Day and Read Across America”, and our school “Iditaread”. Our “Iditaread” takes place each year in March. We choose a musher from the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska and track our musher’s progress daily through checkpoints from Anchorage to Nome. (See Iditarod.com) Each student has to read a book, or a chapter in a chapter book, for each of the 26 or 27 checkpoints in the race. That adds up to a lot of extra reading over a two-week period.

What’s next in your classroom? Math is a big focus for our second-graders. This month, we are looking forward to the “100th Day of School,” which is a big deal. Celebrating this milestone provides us with the opportunity to practice our addition, subtraction, multiplication and even division. Everyone brings in a collection of 100 things to include in the activities. It’s always fun and interesting.