Top Teachers
Saturday, March 7, 1998
Name: Jeffrey Rachlin
Age: 26
Position: King Intermediate teacher
Education: Colorado State University
Pastimes: Tennis, movies, theater, bowling
Jeffrey Rachlin wants to change the way students think about school. Getting students involved
School is more than just a place to be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every weekday, said Rachlin, seventh-grade social-studies teacher at King Intermediate; it's where students can get involved in extracurricular activities and feel like they're part of a family.
Since becoming the new student activities coordinator in September, Rachlin started up 17 new clubs and convinced teachers to become club advisors. With 1,000 seventh- and eighth-graders crammed into one school, the clubs give students an opportunity to interact in small groups.
It's the responsibility of teachers to get involved, too, he said.
"If I can get the entire faculty involved with all the activities on campus and get them to enjoy and not treat this as a job, then I would stay happy forever."
It was also Rachlin's idea to turn a storeroom into a new mini-auditorium. Faculty and students spent a month refurbishing the room to create the school's first performing arts facility, called "The Pit," which opened in time for the acting club's debut in December.
"If he hadn't taken that on as a task, we wouldn't have had that done," Principal Cynthia Chun said. Rachlin always goes above and beyond his regular teaching duties. "Everybody has a place" in life, Chun said, "and this is his place."
Shirley Iida, Star-Bulletin
