Wyoming — Emily Wallace has an ugly holiday sweater for every day of December, including a Christmas-tree top adorned with real bulbs and garland.
She always wears pink on Wednesdays, a nod to the 2004 movie Mean Girls’ rule, “We wear pink on Wednesdays!” On December Wednesdays, that means a pink holiday sweater, of course.
Wallace, a biology teacher, loves to bring festivity and fun to the halls and classrooms at Wyoming High School, and does so in a big way each year. Along with the merriest of wardrobe, she decorates the freshman hallway during Thanksgiving break so students come back after the long weekend to a wonderland of holiday spirit.
The corridor is lined with inflatable trees, Santas and snowmen, a 6-foot candy cane, enormous wrapped presents, twinkling lights and stockings hung by a faux fireplace with care.
“The kids are usually very surprised. It’s really like the holidays threw up on you. A lot of them turn the corner that first morning and say, ‘What did you guys do?’ It’s so funny to see their reactions, Wallace said.
Wallace scours garage sales, gets hand-me-down decor from her parents and uses odds and ends and homemade items to bedeck the hall. Last year, she wrapped the entire hallway in wrapping paper because she came across a surplus of supplies.
Her reason for the over-the-top surprise is to add a little magic to the weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break.
“This time of year is the hardest part of the year. A couple years ago, I was like, ‘What can we do to make it so we all want to be here?’ … It makes these three, sometimes four weeks go by a little faster. The kids don’t know it’s coming, and I add different stuff every year.”
The Language of Science & Connection
While Wallace loves to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year, it’s her day-to-day teaching that makes the true difference in their lives, say fellow teachers and students. Once past the hallway decor and through her classroom door, science activities, experiments and lots of very targeted instruction unfold.
Along with general-ed biology, Wallace teaches English language biology and English language physical science. Newcomer students, who have been in the U.S. for a short time, are learning science while learning English.
During a recent class, while donning a white Christmas sweater vest adorned with a smiling Rudolph, Wallace led instruction on genetic variation, mitosis and meiosis, and normal and abnormal chromosomes.
“All right, let’s echo: ‘Does this graphic“ show mitosis or meiosis?” she begins, the class repeating after every couple words. The echoing continues, going over the evidence students need to find to identify mitosis or meiosis.
In her third year teaching the EL courses, she uses a system of embedding English instruction into science — emphasizing vocabulary, having students repeat words and phrases, and learning grade-level science objectives.
“We keep everything very routine. A lot of our EL students have had quite a journey to being here in this classroom today, and so with the stress of their daily lives, (the challenge is) how can we keep everything in a classroom structured and routine so they don’t have to worry about what’s expected next?” Wallace said.
Biology is a heavy science, she added, and difficult for English learners to learn in an English-speaking classroom.
“It does have its own language, and some of these words you don’t just use on a regular basis. It’s tough for any student to pick up on biology content through the vocabulary, so how can we use that vocabulary in teaching English?”
Students use resources such as notes, visual models and stations to reinforce their learning and provide reminders about words and what they mean, so they can learn biology.
“We strip away the non-necessities so they can be able to practice the skill of going back to a resource and finding the information,” she explained.
After just a year in the U.S., a student from Syria, whose name could not be used due to parent permission, was confident enough recently to take over teaching a lesson in class. In front of the projector he talked about the chromosomes, having the class repeat terminology.
Wallace has helped him develop that confidence, he said.
“She has a special way of teaching that makes students feel like they are with their mom instead of their teacher,” the student said. “Her class is the most favorite class for me. I wait five hours until I get to her class.”
Wyoming Roots
Wallace has been teaching at Wyoming High School for four years. She began her career in Chicago Public Schools, where she taught for three years, and Mount Clemens Public Schools, near Detroit, for four years.
A 2009 graduate of Wyoming Rogers High School, she has roots in Wyoming. Her mother, Christy Holt, was a secretary at the high school for many years, and father, Curtis Holt, was city manager for two decades.
She earned a biomedical degree from Grand Valley State University, but “ended up not going to med school.” She instead joined the The New Teacher Project, with the goal of teaching in Chicago Public Schools for one year to earn her teaching certificate. She also earned a master’s degree in educational leadership and administration from Eastern University. She and her husband, Doug Wallace, have a 2-year-old son, Wade.
Wallace’s focus has always been about meeting basic needs first and then adding extra touches. In Chicago, Wallace used to collect laundry in a closet for students who lacked a way to clean it. She would take it home, wash it and return it to the closet the next day. Last school year, she brought an electric griddle, serving up pancakes every Wednesday morning for breakfast club.
“I always have food on hand; whether a kid needs it or just wants it, it’s available.”
“You’ve got to find a way to connect, and it’s not just about building relationships; it’s about consistency. It’s, ‘How can I be a consistent presence in their lives?’ Because you never know if they have one.”
Wallace co-teaches with English teacher Melissa Schneider and EL teacher Jessica Trentham. Together, they create all of the resources for the EL science classes.
‘It’s really like the holidays threw up on you. A lot of them turn the corner that first morning and say, ‘What did you guys do?’
— teacher Emily Wallace
Wallace brings excellent instruction and a whole lot more to her students’ lives, Trentham said. She attends students’ sporting events and takes their photos, printing them for the students and hanging up extras in her classroom window.
“She’s a rock star because she’s present in those ways for students, but at the same time she doesn’t let the relationship-building lower the rigor level in her classroom,” Trentham said. “She holds students to an incredibly high standard, academically and behaviorally. She truly sets them up for future success by doing this. It’s an honor to work alongside her and learn from her as a colleague.
Schneider described Wallace’s magic: “She brings excitement, energy and laughter to every class, while simultaneously holding her students to high standards for behavior and academics. I love co-teaching with Emily because she is open to trying new things, and is always willing to share her expertise with colleagues.”
Freshman Camila Luz, from Mexico: “She’s always trying to help us when we don’t understand biology and always helps others when they have a question.”
Freshman Axel Arevalo, an El Salvador native, said Wallace helps him in many ways.
“She is very helpful, a good teacher. She is very patient. She worries about her students. She cares. She explains to me the things I don’t know. She is very friendly with the students,” Axel said.
Wallace said she wants her classroom to be a place where students feel comfortable and cared for, so they can focus on learning.
“My thought process has always been, ‘How can I make this the one hour of the day they can enjoy and relax and they don’t have to worry about anything else?” she said.
In that atmosphere, they can think about genes, mitosis and meiosis — or whatever is the lesson of the day — and build their language around it. That’s Wallace’s main priority.
But for a few weeks a year, when they head out of the classroom and into the hallway wonderland, they can take a moment of awe — another goal of Wallace’s — and simply let a few visions of sugar plums dance in their heads.
Read more from Wyoming:
•Band member, Scout builds tools for drummers
•Fourth-graders find voice through verse
