Learning With Style

Last week, I had the opportunity to observe a tremendous teacher teaching a tremendous teachable moment.

To many “t”’s? You can add one more: Trexler, as in Mrs. Trexler, our high school FACS and Parenting teacher. On Monday night, she took the podium at the Frontier Stage to emcee her very first FACS Style Review. Her students had designed and created original children’s outfits, which were modeled by younger brothers and sisters and by the young members of our Head Start program.

Mrs. Trexler would read the name of her student, the name of the model, and the name of the parents. She also described the outfit and described the specific skills the student had to learn in order to complete the project.

As the event continued, the outfits became increasingly complex and ever more impressive. Several students walked across the stage multiple times, with one or more models to show off several different outfits. Some of the students, made matching outfits for themselves, or in some way coordinated with their models to improve the presentation.

The theater was packed and the students positively beamed with the pride. The young models responded to all the attention, strutting and twirling in their new outfits like old runway pros. Cameras clicked and flashed continuously, and everyone left with big smiles and warm hugs.

For me, though, the best part of the show came right at the beginning when Mrs. Trexler explained why she had decided to have her students sew children’s clothing and host a Style Review.

“For years, I had the students in my FACS class sew sweatpants and pajama bottoms. I thought this was a good project, until I began to hear from some of my former students about how their FACS projects usually ended up in the trash. I realized that I had to come up with something better.”

I was so impressed with Mrs. Trexler’s admission that the Style Review was born out a desire to do better. It is the mark of a good teacher to admit when their curriculum is not engaging their students and the mark of a great teacher when they spend all summer dreaming up a project that can capture the attention and enthusiasm of their class.

And capture their enthusiasm is just what the Style Review did. Not only did her FACS students become engaged, many of them became “raving fans” of the project. They boasted to their friends about how much they were learning, and about how much fun they were having in the process. Soon, Mrs. Trexler’s other classes wanted to participate, and before she could say, “seam ripper,” kids were coming to her with patterns and fabrics, and ideas for more and more complicated projects.

She invited some of littlest kids into her classroom for “measurements” and took her students to the Head Start room to work with the young models. Her students began to work with multiple students, creating multiple outfits.

Often, Mrs. Trexler related how this student or that student had become “familiar with the seam ripper when sewing this project,” meaning that the students often had to learn by trial and error. But her students never gave up. The clothes were completed on time and often with surprising complexity.

The Style Review reinforced my belief that when students are excited and authentically engaged, they are willing to stick with a project, even when it becomes difficult. When students truly take ownership, they often go above and beyond, producing amazing things that surprise even themselves.

Most of these students had little to no sewing experience. However, after Mrs. Trexler’s brainstorm for improving their fashion education, her students gained a learning experience they will never forget.

They already have plans for how to improve the show next year. I have no doubt that next year’s Style Review will show to another packed theater just what a tremendous teacher teaching a tremendous teachable moment truly looks like.