Retired Pine-Richland English Teacher Writes Book

Dr. Susan Frantz may have retired, but she's not given up teaching. The only difference is that now her classroom is everywhere.

Frantz retired in 2009 after 18 years in and at the time she said she planned to spend her free time writing a book dedicated to and about all the students she's met and taught, and, more importantly, what they taught her.

That book has become a reality. Beyond the 21st Century Classroom: Making 'Community' More than Just a Word was published by Frantz earlier this year.  

It is currently listed on Amazon.com and on her website, susanfrantz.com.  A portion of the proceeds from sales of the book will go to the Light of Life Rescue Mission.

It's no surprise that Frantz is still teaching and encouraging community outreach after leaving . Her tenure as a teacher was distinguished by her efforts to bring the community into the classroom and vice versa.

"I wanted to capture the community service that grew out of the classroom and how you can learn and grow both in and out of the classroom," says Frantz. "My students are the ones who really prompted me to extend classroom learning into the real world, I wanted to show other teachers how that could be done."

Frantz is well known for her leadership in community service and outreach, including her commitment to Make A Difference Day, her work with the homeless, fundraising efforts for Light of Life Rescue Mission and for her volunteer work and fundraising for Animal Friends.

She says it was her students' questions about things they were discussing in the classroom that prompted her to take them into the community. There, the students saw for themselves different facets of society that became real, rather than just an abstract concept.

When urged to write about their experiences, says Frantz, the students' writings were so powerful that it was obvious these experiences had touched them in a way that simply reading about them in the classroom could not have done. 

Many of the poems and essays written by her students over the years are woven into the book. It's a powerful message and lesson plan on how to make learning come alive for middle school students and their families.

"What's wonderful about Pine-Richland is that parents really want to be there to help their children and to help them learn and grow outside the classroom," says Frantz. "You can't just point at schools and say, 'teach.' Learning is a collaborative effort."

Anyone who doubts her approach needs only to read the book, and the remarkable writing that her community service-oriented approach inspires in her students.

The book is organized around 15 "life lessons" she says she learned from her students. It has specific instructions for how to extend learning outside the classroom. It's aimed at educators, parents and at teenagers themselves.

"There's almost a negative view of kids of middle-school age that they are shallow and self-centered," says Frantz. "In fact, this is an age when they are loving and caring and so open to learning how to give of themselves. This is an age that I just love."

Frantz still sponsors community service activities at Pine-Richland Middle School, and she's working on another book about writing with meaning. It too will be dedicated to her students who she says taught her as much as she taught them.