Patri Collins - 8th Grade US History and Film-Photo-Music Teacher

Location: Islander Middle School

Job description: Patri teaches US History, which spans the beginning of the American Revolution to the post civil war era, to a wide spectrum of students. His Film-Photo-Music class is a trimester-long class in art appreciation that covers the history of film and photography along with different genres of music.

Typical day: “I don’t come in like gangbusters in the morning,” says Patri, who starts the day with a prep-period. “I take the bus to work from the U-District, which,” he notes drily, “only takes a little over an hour.” His bike-ride home is a much swifter commute.

Patri tries to break away from a rote method of presenting history. “As a kid growing up in London,” he says, “I didn’t have to be sold on history. I want to get my students excited about history and to challenge their assumptions.” Since it’s impractical to take a field trip to Independence Hall, Patri uses a project-based, inquiry-based approach. Students might produce a radio show about the interaction between natural disasters and history. Or, write an acrostic poem about manifest destiny, learn about map-making, or draw cartoons about the Monroe Doctrine.

His Film-Photo-Music class is an elective, so there is no homework or traditional exercises. Instead, students explore different ways of looking at the world through various art forms. Patri shows them classic and foreign movies such Trip to the Moon, Demolition of a Wall, and the 1933 version of King Kong. “Once they get over the shock of subtitles and black and white,” he says, “they actually like them.” The class recently took a field trip to the Experience Music Project to see a Nirvana exhibit. Says Patri, “I asked them to dress in grunge (a flannel shirt and jeans thrift-store fashion style popularized by the band), “and several of the kids pointed out that I dress in grunge, normally.” The class also held a Beatles vs. Rolling Stones contest. Students learn about folk and blues music, too. In the spirit of Woody Guthrie, they wrote their own folk songs based on articles from the Mercer Island Reporter. “It’s a fun class,” says Patri.

Best part of the job: “It’s nice,” Patri says, “when students come back years later and tell me they remember my class.”

Something people may not know: “I was born in an ambulance,” says Patri. “I was the first baby the attendant had ever delivered.”

Years in district: Patri began teaching for the district in 2001.

Outside interests: “I am interested in the idea of planned communities,” says Patri. To that end, he likes to visit the sites of historical utopian communities in the Puget Sound area. “There were a lot of these places in the 19th century,” he explains. “Some were political, some were religious. None of them are still intact, and there’s usually not even a plaque to show they were there. But I just go for kicks, and it’s a good way to see the state.” Patri plays guitar and likes to travel. “The last time I left the country,” he says, “I went to Oman and the United Arab Emirates.” Patri also likes to read, visit art museums, and roll sushi. He and his wife, Jill, have a kindergarten-aged son, Felix. “Actually,” Patri confesses, “I spend most of my free time playing with Legos.”