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34 years of open doors: A teacher’s legacy at Seneca High · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Thirty four years of Open Doors, a teacher's Legacy at
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  Seneca High written by Marrabeth Wilson. This article is being
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  read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  In Merrily Appleby's Seneca High School classroom, books are more
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  than assignments their doorways. Students stand in a charged Salem
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  courtroom as accusations fly, walk alongside Scout Finch as justice
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  is tested, and confront the unsettling world of book burning firemen.
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  Appleby is retiring after thirty four years at Seneca High School.
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  In her final year, former students and colleagues are reflecting
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  on how she transformed literature into lived experience and created
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  a classroom where every student felt safe to be themselves.
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  When you're teaching literature, you need to ground it in
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  the time period either it was written in or set in.
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  Appleby said, you want to make sure they understand the
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  time period it was written in and the setting. So
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  if you're doing the Crucible, you need to understand Puritanism,
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  but you also have to understand McCarthyism, because that's what
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  it was about. By weaving each work's historical context into
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  the lesson, Appleby transforms reading into a lived experience, helping
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  students see not just what a text says, but why
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  it matters long after the final page. The daughter of
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  two high school English teachers, Appleby grew up surrounded by
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  books and a passion for teaching. I guess it's in
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  my blood, she said, laughing. When I was about two,
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  my parents put my crib up against a bookshelf, and
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  I just pulled the books into my crib, like I
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  want to read these. It's just one of those family stories.
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  Applebe credits her parents for shaping both her teaching style
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  and her approach to reaching students. She said she often
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  hears them in her lesson plans and when she speaks
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  to her students their love of books, their love of travel,
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  their love of teaching. I'm really my parents kid in
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  terms of where I ended up and what I teach,
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  she said. This passion for justice inherited from her parents,
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  shapes every lesson she teaches. Her lesson plans combine her
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  love of literature and history with her commitment to recognizing injustice.
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  When teaching Farrene height four hundred and fifty one, she
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  focuses on censorship when teaching Black Like Me. The focus
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  is on the civil rights movement. She opens each unit
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  by changing her bulletin board to represent the challenges presented
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  in the text, then gather students around it to begin
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  the lesson. When I put up the next bulletin board,
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  it's all about books that have been challenged, she said.
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  We talk about it. Have you read this book? What's
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  wrong with that book? And then I explain what people
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  are saying about it. During her ap English class, Appleby
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  taught Knight Eleeveseel's nineteen fifty six Holocaust memoir. Inspired by
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  her mother, who also taught Knight in her own class,
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  Appleby realized she could create an entire litter course focused
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  on the Holocaust. It just happened organically, she said, I
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  don't even know how many months of researching and pulling
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  things together until it became a semester class. I think
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  it's been about fifteen years now. Once again, she focuses
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  on what's happening historically and what's happening now. It hurts
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  me to see that we're allowing it in this country
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  and in other places in the world. She said. About
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  ten years ago, I started adding to my PowerPoint every
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  single semester because there was more happening, and then BONDI
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  Beach happened, and then they bombed a synagogue in Mississippi.
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  It breaks my heart to see it happening. Applebe's classroom
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  became known as a haven for students struggling with their differences,
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  an aspect of her room that she took very seriously.
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  I think I grew into it, she said. I didn't
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  have a super liberal background or anything, but stepping up
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  and caring for other people is what my parents did,
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  doing extra things for kids. She recalled a pivotal moment
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  early in her career, before the language of allyship became common.
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  A young man came to my door one morning and said,
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  Missus Appleby, I just wanted to tell you that I
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  figured out I'm gay, she said, and I went prosing
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  processing Okay, thank you for sharing that. That moment stayed
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  with her. Right before the Supreme Court made its decision
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  on marriage equality. In twenty fifteen, Appleby noticed a group
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  of students who needed support. She worked with the school
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  social worker at the time, Jill Rockroar, now the director
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  of Special Education, to create the Gay Straight Alliance. I
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  realized there was this new population that maybe didn't feel
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  safe because I didn't know how they felt. She said.
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  I thought maybe someone just needed to stand up and
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  say hey, I'm an ally. I started to advocate and
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  see who those kids were and make sure that people
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  in the school administration other teachers knew that maybe we
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  needed to do better and do more. Over her thirty
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  four years at Seneca, Appleby took thirteen overseas trips with students,
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  expanding their understanding of the world beyond the classroom. Her
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  former students and colleagues have reached out to express their gratitude.
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  In a retirement Facebook message board, over three hundred former
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  students left comments reflecting on her impact. One wrote, thank
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  you for being a teacher who always made each student
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  feel accepted and cared for. Vicki Carathanassis, now a pastor,
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  shared how Appleby's impromptu speaking lessons shaped his career. Impromptu
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  speaking taught me to read the prompt and the first
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  idea that comes to your mind afterward is either your thesis,
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  argument or conclusion, he said in a message to the school.
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  I've done this with every paper I've written and every
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  sermon I've preached, and it's never failed me. On her
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  last day, at Seneca, Appleby's classroom will be empty, but
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  the books will remain doorways to other times, other places,
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  other lives, and somewhere a student will open one and
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  understand why it matters. When asked how she wants to
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  be remembered, Applebee was clear, I want to be remembered
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  for showing the kids there is so much more to
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  the world out there, she said, It's so fun to
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  go and experience it, and maybe just loving literature. I
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  think you can tell the teachers that really love what
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  they're teaching, and I hope that came through