Elementary teacher brings the Arctic to Elgin

Answering the question “Where did you grow up?” can be complicated for Ani Smith.

The answer is a list rather than a single place: Urbana, India, Indonesia, Arizona.

Smith moved often because of her father’s work in international agriculture. That experience fostered a love of geography that Smith has tried to impart to her students at Elgin’s Sheridan Elementary School.

It can be an uphill battle. Standardized tests don’t stress geography, so the subject is often ignored in the classroom. Recently, a student, when asked what continent Mexico is on, responded: Antarctica.

“If you’re going to be a well-rounded kid, you’ve got to have geography,” Smith said. “They are so enclosed in their little worlds. They have to know they are part of something bigger.”

Through a fellowship provided by National Geographic Education Programs and Lindblad Expeditions, Smith is hoping to take her students to a place few, if any, will ever travel to: the Arctic Circle.

Under the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship Program, Smith and five other teachers will spend a week in late June and early July on an icebreaker cruise ship, traversing the Svalbard archipelago, a group of Norwegian islands in the Arctic Circle.

Smith and her fellow teachers will spend their days documenting the unique ecology, climate, geography and culture of the islands.

When Smith returns, she will transform her Sheridan Elementary classroom into the Arctic. Students from kindergarten through the sixth grade will be able to walk through and learn about the animals, plants and people that populate the archipelago. Smith’s own fourth-graders will learn about the Arctic in a thematic unit in which she hopes to incorporate all the critical subject areas.

For students at Sheridan, an east side Elgin school with many economically disadvantaged students, it will be a rare opportunity.

“They don’t have a lot of opportunities,” Smith said. “This is my opportunity to show them part of the world that most adults don’t see.”

Smith’s students are already envisioning the transformation in her classroom.

“I can imagine all the pictures,” said Viviana Vargas, 9, of Elgin. “It would be very exciting to walk around and see how it’s changed.”