Cheri Garner strives to instill Steele students with love of learning

Steele Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Cheri Garner likes to do things her way in the classroom.

That usually means getting messy, the 52-year-old quipped.

Of all the subjects taught by the team leader from Steele, near Rainbow Boulevard and Warm Springs Road, it’s science that brings the Brigham Young University graduate the most joy.

“It piques students’ curiosity,” she explained.

Garner, who has taught in Utah and Clark County for the past 23 years, was named Clark County’s March Educator of the Month.

The program, sponsored by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Sierra Nevada College, chose Garner from nominations submitted at reviewjournal.com under a link for “Contests and Promotions.” A panel that includes members of the Clark County School Board, the Public Education Foundation and Teach for America chooses the monthly winner.

Part of what students have said they like about Garner is that she’s always making lessons interesting.

Parent Chantelle Lacanienta praised Garner for making school exciting for her daughter, Keiahna.

“When I pick her up from school, she can’t wait to share the new things she has learned,” Lacanienta said.

“Mrs. Garner inspires the students to challenge themselves in and out of the classroom. She has shared stories from her own childhood, which motivate them to work harder,” Lacanienta added.

For Garner, it’s all about applying subjects to real life, which is easy to do with science, she explained.

“Science kind of incorporates everything,” she said.

And that’s when things get messy.

Garner loves to take the kids outside where the “world is our classroom.” Outdoor experiments — ranging from building catapults and miniature airplanes to forming an erosion that simulates how the Grand Canyon was created — help students understand how science works in the world.

“It’s very messy,” she insisted.

Garner said her methods help lessons stick with her students as they take standardized tests, although she fears that to much emphasis is put on “teaching for a test.” The focus needs to be on best practices for teaching, which she believes are creative lessons.

Garner is confident that her lesson plans better prepare students to take tests than if she simply taught to the tests.

There used to be more trust in the creativity of teachers, she said. “The highest compliment I can get is when a student tells me ‘I finally enjoy school in your classroom.’ Kids spend a lot of time in school. I want to teach them to feel joy in learning.”

It’s the same joy in learning she experienced growing up in Connecticut.

Garner, whose father was a professor at the University of Connecticut — “Go Huskies,” she said — knew she wanted to be a teacher in first grade.

“My teacher, she always looked so happy. It was a decision I made as a very young girl. And I knew one day I would have my very own classroom,” Garner said.

Over the years she took in all the good things she liked about her teachers and kept mental notes, Garner said.

Garner credited her parents for instilling in her a love of learning and the need to be involved in her community.

She brings that same love to her students that she developed in first grade.

“I love the kids. I learn from them. I feed off their energy. I love inspiring them. It’s my thing,” she said.

Contact Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or702-224-5512. Find him on Twitter: @fjmccabe