Classroom

At Clarksville Elementary School, rabbits, foxes and deer are alwayswelcome in the classroom -- the outdoor classroom, where students can observe wildlife up-close, learn about soil erosion and identify flowers and plants.Behind the school and backing up to an open field, the environmental study area is the result of a four-year project involving students, parents, community groups and local businesses.In addition to the classroom, where tall trees encircle four worktables, the area includes a butterfly garden, animal tracks box and outdoor amphitheater.

There was a time -- not too long ago -- when Sid Burkot would first have to tell a potential recruit exactly what UMBC stood for before mentioning it had a decent swimming team.These days, however, the seventh-year coach is finding life on the signing circuit a bit more lucrative."When we go recruiting, UMBC is sometimes better-known in New Jersey than Columbia," said Burkot. "It's gained a reputation as a good school, and that's made my job a lot easier."After going a combined 35-40 the past three years, the women's squad is 9-2 and the men's 9-3 this season.

A 57-year-old elementary school teacher charged with assaulting three fourth-grade students should be kept out of the classroom, a group of Crownsville parents say.And the school's PTA president formally requested yesterday that the Board of Education investigate the school's principal to determine whether he was negligent in failing to report parent complaints regarding the alleged abuse.Margaret M. Snyder, a veteran teacher at Millersville Elementary School, was charged Monday with three counts of assault and battery in connection with incidents that allegedly took place in her classroom March 23 and June 5.In the three incidents described, parents claim their children were scratched or received fingernail marks on their chests, stomachs or arms after the teacher grabbed them to force them into line or to sit down.

Guidance counselors, resource teachers and anyone else qualified to teach could wind up back in the classroom, but it is uncertain whether there will be job losses as the Anne Arundel Board of Education struggles to cut $9 million in spending to balance its books, county school officials say.A letter sent yesterday to all 8,000 school employees from David D. Lombardo, director of human resources, warns that "certain currently occupied existing positions may...

Theirs are not the faces you'd expect to see filling the seats at an orientation for new teachers, but there they were last week. Steven Aust just retired after 30 years as an engineer with the Maryland Department of the Environment. Next month, he will teach technical education at Parkville High School. Susan Putnam spent the past 18 years raising two children. Her new career will be at Dogwood Elementary as a fifth-grade teacher. Isaac Miller, who will be 60 next month, made the switch to teaching science five years ago after the medical laboratory he oversaw in Pennsylvania went out of business.

In a first-grade classroom at Gunpowder Elementary School, 6-year-old Juliana Taffeteani puzzled over how many centimeters long the box of staples might be. "Take a wild guess," Julie Spause, an 18-year-old teaching intern, said in a soft, even voice. "How many centimeters do you think it is?" Juliana pondered a bit longer, wrote, "11 cm," and then looked to her helper for confirmation. She beamed when Spause cheered, "11 on the dot. Good job!" Working with children like Juliana and seeing them grow, Spause said, are the primary reasons that she has decided to pursue a career in teaching.

While a recent survey revealed that overall class sizes in Carroll County are down slightly or holding steady, some schools are struggling to balance growing enrollments with a mission to provide a quality education for each student. The problem seems especially acute in core academic classes, such as English and social studies, at high schools in the southern portion of the county - one of the fastest-growing regions in the state. For example, at Liberty High in Eldersburg, 55 percent of the school's English classes have more than 30 students.

Teaching has taken Robin August to courtrooms, hospitals and cabins in the woods. But August, who was named Baltimore County Teacher of the Year yesterday, said that after nearly two decades of teaching, one venue remains beyond compare. "I can honestly say that the most exciting place teaching brings me is the classroom," August, who teaches math to sixth-graders at Deep Creek Middle School in Essex, said as she choked back tears during her acceptance speech. "When the lights come on, the bell rings and students enter the room, that's when my classroom comes alive.

His mother, his teachers and the principal couldn't get over it: Little Larry Mayo sat in a classroom for 24 mornings this summer without so much as clenching a fist.He had firmly established his reputation as a hot-tempered 7-year-old whose fights landed him in the principal's office at Thomas G. Hayes Elementary School no less than once a week in the spring.But this summer, in another classroom at Thomas Hayes in East Baltimore, a machine that talked to him riveted Larry's attention. And a teacher rewarded correct answers about short and long vowels with regular doses of praise -- and tokens good for Nerf hoops, plastic car phones and all sorts of other goodies.