Teeland teacher sets high expectations

WASILLA -- Shelley Heiserman's parents expected a lot from their children. She and her four siblings were taught to work hard and be good people. And the importance of education was stressed.

"All five of us have master's degrees," said Heiserman, who hails from the small farming community of Medicine Lake, Mont.

And Heiserman expects a lot from her eighth-grade math students at Teeland Middle School.

"I'm not always the cool teacher or the popular teacher. I have high expectations of myself and my students," said Heiserman. "I expect the best from my students."

Larry Jacobson, principal of Teeland, says Heiserman knows how to get it.

"She's as good as they come," said Jacobson. "She understands what it takes for children to learn and she knows how to motivate them. She does not allow them not to be successful."

Jacobson first began working with Heiserman six years ago while he was the principal at Colony Middle School and she was the school's music teacher. Under Heiserman's direction, Colony boasted one of the best middle school bands in the state.

"She's a master teacher, the sort of teacher who can teach anything well," Jacobson said.

One look at her resume' suggests he's right.

With a career that began when she was 21 on the South Pacific Island of Guam 28 years ago, and led next to Great Falls, Mont., then on to Alaska's Annette Island and the remote community of Metlakatla and finally to the Mat-Su Valley in 1983, Heiserman has taught subjects as diverse as the lands she has traveled. And in every subject, her students succeed.

Heiserman developed a special-education band and general music program that was used throughout the Great Falls public education system while teaching music in Great Falls. As a physical education teacher at Wasilla's Cottonwood Creek Elementary, she formed a districtwide extra-curricular jump rope program that ultimately grew to around 750 jumpers coached by an army of parent volunteers. Out of this program she formed a demonstration and competition team, the Mat-Su Skippers, and led it to compete and place second in national jump rope competitions in Colorado and Florida. And, as a math teacher, she coordinated a program at Teeland Middle School that led Teeland eighth-graders to achieve among the highest math scores in Mat-Su Valley middle schools on this year's benchmark exams.

So how does she do it?

Heiserman says she runs a fast-paced, structured class and she meets students on their level. She says making a connection with students is vital.

"I tell them I'm their 'mother away from home.' They know I care about them and their success," said Heiserman.

She says she learned the importance of building relationships early in her career. The tiny village she taught in for two years on Guam was a close-knit community. Heiserman says the people there welcomed she and her husband and treated them like family.

"We got so close to those people. They taught me that what makes you successful in life is the relationships you build with other people," Heiserman said.

And she says the people she met during her four-year stay in Metlakatla reinforced that perspective.

"Once again in a different culture that same life lesson came up," Heiserman said.

She says the relationship she builds with her students is rooted in clear expectations and honesty.

"I don't give them a false impression of where they're at. I tell them 'this is where we are, and this is where we need to go.' Then I help them develop the skills to get there," Heiserman said.

And she's available for her students.

"I'm always in my classroom working with students, before school, lunch time and after school. I'll do whatever it takes to make things happen," she said.

Though she is successful, Heiserman concedes teaching middle school can be tough.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm a fish swimming upstream, trying to get homework in, trying to keep kids focused," she said.

She reminds her middle school students all the time of the importance of the choices they make.

"I tell them that they are molding themselves for life by every single thing they do today," she said.

A quote from Aristotle hanging on her classroom wall reads, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit." It's a habit Heiserman tries to instill in her students and it's a habit she strives for daily in herself.

"I take my teaching very seriously. I'm constantly striving for ways to improve," she said. "I love kids and I love teaching. It's a vocation, not just a job."