Classroom innovation

Foothill High teacher honored with ING's Unsung Heroes award

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Foothill High School teacher Heather Collins was recognized recently for her innovative efforts to get students out of the classroom to teach them as effectively as possible.

A teacher in the Mentally Challenged Specialized (MCS) department at Foothill, Collins was a winner of ING's 2005 Unsung Heroes award program and received a $2,000 grant to begin implementing her "On Our Own" project in the school. This year 100 educators were awarded grants for $2,000. Of those initial winners, three will be awarded additional top prizes in the form of grants for $5,000, $10,000 and $25,000.

Collins, who teaches functional math, reading and vocational and living skills, submitted a proposal for her "On Our Own" project. She will begin implementing the program this week.

"I pretty much teach daily living," Collins said. "It's less about academics and more about my students becoming as functional as they can."

Collins found out about the ING grants last year through the school's principal. She applied for the program last year, but was not selected until this year.

She said her ultimate goal is to get the $25,000 grant and use it to rent an apartment close to the school that could be used as a teaching facility. She currently teaches life skills in classrooms at Foothill, including the school's cooking classroom, but because those rooms are not set up the way an apartment or home is set up -- the cooking classroom, for example, contains not one but six kitchens in one room -- it is hard for her students to apply what they learn in her classroom to everyday life.

"I'd like to have an apartment where students could practice learning to cook and do laundry, all of those basic life skills, in a realistic setting," Collins said. "Students with mental retardation have a hard time generalizing between a school classroom and home. If they are going to be able to cook for themselves and do laundry, a real apartment is the best place for them to learn."

With the $2,000 grant, Collins said she will buy some small appliances that students can practice using in the classroom. If she wins the $5,000 or $10,000 award, she would like to use the money to have a classroom at the school refurbished to more closely resemble a real kitchen.

Collins has been teaching for 14 years and has been at Foothill since the school opened seven years ago.

The idea for the "On Our Own" project came from programs Collins heard about on the East Coast, where school districts rented apartments that MCS students used to practice daily living skills. She said the programs work because they empower students to do as much as they can for themselves.

"It's important that my students don't feel like they can't do anything," Collins said. "We can all do different things, even if we function differently. My class is about providing them with skills to make them as independent as possible.

"When they leave my class and go to work, or go to a living center, I want them to feel like they don't have to depend on others. I want them to feel as comfortable in the level of independence they've achieved as possible, even if they will always need some support."

ING's Unsung Heroes program was started in 1995 and recognizes educators in kindergarten through 12th grade classes for their innovative teaching methods, creative educational projects and the ability to positively influence students.