More than two dozen third-graders spread across Meri Albert's classroom at Pine Trail Elementary while their teacher flitted from station to station, not unlike one of the birds they were studying that nest in Ormond Beach's Central Park. Here she helped a group test an owl's eyesight. There she watched as they attempted to measure photosynthesis.
But she couldn't be everywhere at once. At one station near the front of the room, a couple of boys ducked from view, intent on an unsanctioned project. Using recycled paper scraps and anything else they could find, they constructed a wedge to level the legs of their wobbly table.
Noticing the work later, Albert had to smile. Initiative, after all, is one of the "Einstein's Life Skills" printed prominently on the wall of her colorful classroom. "That's pretty creative," she told the boys. "Thanks for trying to fix the table."
Kindergarten teacher Suzanne Furman wasn't present to witness the moment, but it's an example of what she means in praising her friend and colleague's skill at encouraging original thinking in her gifted class.
"That's her job, to harness that," said Furman, whose daughter was in Albert's class about a decade ago. “They learn that it’s cool to be around other kids who are curious and want to learn. That follows them all the way to high school.”
"Albert's Einstein's" started as a playful nickname a past class gave to themselves, but the label has stuck for succeeding classes taught by a teacher nominated for The News-Journal’s monthly “Amazing Teacher” series for the impact she makes on students.
“If you talk with anyone in the community and they hear your child is in Ms. Albert’s class, everyone understands how lucky you are. It’s like you won the teacher lottery,” said Victoria Rhodes, a classroom volunteer whose 9-year-old son Cameron is in Albert's class. “She allows kids to do these projects themselves, so they’re figuring things out for themselves. They’re learning life skills beyond third grade.”
Common sense. Flexibility. Organization. While no teacher can escape the importance of state testing and school accountability, Albert understands there are any number of ways to achieve those goals, so she strives to encourage a love of learning. Why stop at teaching facts, if you can teach your children to think?
"All students have bright minds," said Albert, 48, who lives in Ormond Beach and has two daughters, Abbie, a rising senior at Florida State University, and Emma, who's graduating this month at Mainland High School and will be joining her sister at FSU in the fall. "It’s our job as teachers to tap into that and to help them maintain that level of curiosity for learning."
Curiosity is another of the Einsteins' life skills words. Fittingly in a classroom where a portrait of the theoretical physicist hangs on the wall, Albert's class has a strong focus on science. She interweaves lessons in math and reading with the subject she says presents the most opportunities for hands-on learning.
"Science is a wonderful way to bring all of the subject areas together," she said. "Science is studying the world around us. Students are naturally curious and interested in everything around them."
Her love for both subject matter and students was clear as she continued her rounds. After learning about the birds that inhabit the nearby park, the kids will be building nests of their own with materials they’ve found. Albert will test the nests: Can they support the weight of eggs? Will they hold up against wind and water?
She ended her explanation of the lesson with a challenge to her third-grade Einsteins. “I want to see fourth-grade work, your best work, on this activity.” Effort. Perseverance. Problem solving.
Kids dispersed into their group activities with no shouting or horseplay. There was an inevitable spill at one station where children were using pipe cleaners and baking soda in a lesson about flower stigmas and pollen. Yet before the session was done, the third-graders had wiped clean the table, the sweet smell of disinfectant wipes filling their half of the classroom. Responsibility. Cooperation. Integrity.
After wrapping up, the class prepared for a visit to Pine Trail's kindergarten wing. The Einsteins are also avid readers, and they hone those skills while sharing that love with some of the school's youngest students. Before they left, Albert coached the Einsteins on how to get the most out of their turn as tutors.
"I think every child in this class loves reading. Am I right?" She paused for a show of hands. "I think you’re pretty good readers in this class. … So what we hope to give them as a gift is to love to read.”
Once partnered up and seated in the hallway outside the kindergarten class, some of the third-graders read to the younger pupils. Others followed along, helping to sound out the words when necessary. Patience. Friendship. Caring.
When the sounds of nearly 50 children reading in a tiled-floor hallway rose above the "voice level one" limit Albert had requested, she quieted the students with a quick series of shushes and whispered instructions.
Her fellow teacher Furman was there to witness this scene and laughed to see how quickly the children complied.
“That’s her magic,” she said before paying Albert the ultimate compliment from one teacher to another. “I wish I could go back and be in her class.”