1998 TEACHER OF THE YEAR; POPULAR EDUCATOR GIVES KIDS A VOICE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Geri Rather's third-graders build miniature cities out of paper, carry on heated debates about stories they read, and are under orders to show respect for each other and their views.

Rather believes an important part of her job as a teacher is to find each child's strength and build upon that so that when they leave her at the end of the year, they have found their voice.

``My No. 1 thing is respect. We all have to work together and appreciate different ideas. We learn in this room to disagree in a positive way,'' Rather said. ``Everybody in here is safe. It's a safe environment where a student can take risks and challenge themselves to go the extra mile.''

In recognition of her work, Rather was named teacher of the year in the Westside Union School District, where she has worked for 10 years and now teaches at Valley View School.

Principal Marcia Moffat said Rather creates situations where students can actively participate in learning, which is structured to accommodate individual differences.

``Geri works hard to make sure that every student in the class has an equal opportunity to express herself or himself and become successful, showing respect for individual student opinions and prizing openness and individuality in students,'' said Moffat, who noted Rather started the third-grade multicultural fair at Valley View.

The memorable moments in teaching come daily. There was a boy who proved to the rest of the class there was another way to solve a math problem

There was a group of students who debated a book called ``Dinosaurs Before Dark'' - the question being whether a treehouse in the book was really a time machine, or if the book's young characters children dreamed their adventure.

``It was the greatest experience seeing them use examples from the literature in a convincing way to help students see their point of view,'' Rather said.

This year, there was a girl who realized that, counter to what she previously thought, she could succeed in school, Rather said.

``She came into class thinking she was not able to do any math, and even thought she couldn't write. She was really downhearted on herself,'' Rather recalled.

Two months into the school year, the girl changed.

``She started to see she could solve problems and write paragraphs on her own. The child now has a voice. She has the courage and strength to get out there and think for herself and fight for what she believes. Before she was timid and unwilling to take a chance,'' Rather said.

The girl's mother, Crystal Stewart, attributes her daughter's emotional and scholastic turnaround to Rather. Stewart said she had noticed Rather at assemblies and on the playground and fervently hoped her daughter would end up in her third-grade class.

``She's amazing. She takes them in like her own children and gives them them great self-confidence. She's not so much a teacher. She's a friend, a big sister and a mother. You don't see other teachers take them completely under their wing and nurture them.''

Before Rather's class, Stewart's daughter would sit in class and cry, doubting her abilities.

``With time and patience and compassion, Geri Rather has broken her of all of that,'' Stewart said. ``She's always telling her there's nothing she can't accomplish.''

The daughter of an engineer and a real estate broker, Rather went to Taft High School and graduated with a bachelors degree in liberal studies from San Diego State University.

A 32-year-old resident of Quartz Hill, she is married to Wes Rather and has a 6-year-old daughter, Brittany.

Rather said she never thought she would be a teacher until she began work at age 18 in a San Diego YMCA after-school day care program.

``When I was a YMCA after-school day care leader, that was it. Once I saw what was going on in the classroom, I knew I needed to get in there and have a say in what goes on,'' Rather said. ``I just knew that I wanted to work with little people. I just love seeing them create their own understanding.''

She also credits a college history teacher as an inspiration. Students learned history by reading biographies and being quizzed as if they were the historical figure.

``He made history come alive. I knew I wanted to do that, too,'' Rather said.

Rather remembers grade school as not always being a pleasant experience, so it's her goal to make it a vastly rewarding one for her students.

``I did very well. It's just that I never appreciated it and never felt that what I was learning would be useful to me,'' Rather said. ``One goal of mine is to have students enjoy what they are doing but definitely take responsibility to learn while they are doing it and be able to apply what they learn in their lives.''

A prime example of that was the culmination last week of a two-week project in which her class built cities made of paper, a lesson integrating the disciplines of math, social studies and language arts.

``We could be building architects, mayors or planners. Hopefully we are furthering their interest, but at the same time they are working with pretty deep mathematical concepts,'' Rather said.

Before using 1-inch wooden cubes, graph paper and their knowledge of volume, multiplication and measurement to erect cities from blueprint designs, the students first had to brainstorm what their model metropolises should contain for it to function.

``All of them have schools, houses, grocery stores, fire stations, police stations, streets and apartments,'' Rather said. ``There are lots of arcades and grass - and the Antelope Valley Mall.''

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PHOTO (Color) Valley View School teacher Geri Rather helps third-grader Korynne Gebhardt, 9, use math learning to build a model city.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News