The room is decked in familiar black, red and white. Stylistic beaver heads adorn the walls, and stuffed beavers can be spotted around. One wall proudly reads “work program” and features prominent jobs and those who are assigned to them. The classroom isn’t found in Carlinville. In fact, it’s not even in Illinois. The classroom is in Arizona and belongs to a third-grade class taught by Allison Williams.
Williams graduated from Blackburn in 2014. She finished with an intense love of Blackburn, especially the work program, and what it had given to her in terms of experience and work skills. She wanted to pass that experience to her students. She emulated the decor of Blackburn with red, white and black decorations, images of Buzz the Beaver and stuffed beavers. Most importantly, though, she adapted the work program to her classroom, assigning each student a position within the classroom.
Over email, Williams said that the children are benefiting; they are learning how their work affects others and how their skills can be put to use. “Giving third graders a responsibility in the classroom also makes them more accountable for their actions,” she said. And the kids are fans, too. “They absolutely LOVE everything about the classroom,” Williams said. “They think Blackburn is super cool and they want to go visit!”
The work program is the part of Blackburn that Williams most enjoys integrating into the classroom, and she’s incorporated as many unique Blackburn jobs as she can. Student Managers are table captains, the admissions crew helps Williams directly, food service cleans up breakfast and lunch and the bookstore keeps the classroom library in order. She also has substituted traditional call and response chants with a shout of “Blackburn!” to which students reply with “Beavers!” Students who perform well can even earn the right to keep a Barney the Beaver plush on their desk for a week.
She wanted her students to experience the growth she did, “My students…already have so much pride in the classroom because of the jobs and the responsibility. The goal at the end of the year is to have students carry over these skills into their real life and into the next years of their schooling.”
Williams’ parents and grandparents all attended Blackburn, and she wanted a change from her enormous high school, so attending seemed natural. She loved the small class sizes and the ease of communication, but it wasn’t perfect. “There were no Starbucks in town!” At times, the school felt almost too small; everyone knew everybody, something she was unused to. Ultimately, though, she enjoyed attending—enough to dedicate her classroom to the school.
Photos taken by Allison Williams