教師亮點 - Shoreline Mckayla Zimmerman

Sewing Confidence: Shoreline Teacher Mckayla Zimmerman’s First-Year Classroom Transformation

When Shoreline Middle School opened its doors for the first time this fall, the massive windowed courtyard, spacious classrooms, and newly-minted mascot logos all spoke to new beginnings, intimating a promise of a fresh start. But for Mckayla Zimmerman, a first-year Family and Consumer Science (FACS) and College and Career Awareness (CCS) teacher, the year began with an unexpected twist: the sewing machines hadn’t arrived. The once-in-a-century move from the now-defunct Dixon Middle School to Shoreline meant delays, gaps, and uncharted territory. For Zimmerman, months of carefully crafted, standards-aligned units were suddenly in flux– but as all great teachers do, she stepped back and reevaluated her year.

“The main reason why I decided to be a middle school teacher is because I want them to know that there is a place for them and that I feel welcomed,” she says. “I wasn’t sure exactly what my plan would be, but I knew I wanted them to feel cared for.” It’s a philosophy she’d prepared before the first day of school, now more pronounced after her first setback. The philosophy meant meeting students where they were—whether that was helping them learn fractions via sewing mini-lessons, or simply offering a quiet space after school.

“I would have kids come visit my class after school, asking, ‘Can I just do some homework here?’ I’m like, ‘100 percent, you’re always welcome.’ That’s my goal.”

What started as a logistical headache became a creative turning point which required Zimmerman to focus on adaptability, improvisation, and, above all, connection. “I tell my students that my classroom is a place where they can try new things, make mistakes, and learn from them,” she says.

Her courses are communal spaces where students can safely imagine, draft, craft, and evaluate—building pajama pants, crafting 3D paper houses, and sewing buttons onto fitted skirts—all while staying deeply rooted in Utah’s standards and strands.

For those unfamiliar with state standards and strands, strands set overarching course goals, such as fostering creativity or building foundational knowledge, while standards outline specific, measurable objectives that scaffold learning step by step. It’s a structure acting like scaffolding; students develop both broad competencies, like critical thinking and collaboration, and precise technical skills, eventually growing into well-rounded adults in the workplace and at home.

In Zimmerman’s classroom, this might mean connecting design concepts like balance and proportion to math standards, or employing a scientific analysis in projects which integrate informational reading skills.

In her career and college awareness class, for example, Zimmerman introduces students to interior design through project-based learning (PBL)—a teaching method that prioritizes knowledge application to real-world problems. Students in her first term designed rooms using digital tools, or built physical 3D models from cardstock. And, by diving into the creative process, Zimmerman helps students connect exploration to real-world applications, often weaving in co-curricular strands to create a more cohesive, extensive base of knowledge.

In her sewing class, Zimmerman also integrates math, reading, and history to create a multi-disciplinary learning experience. “Right now we’re learning how to read a ruler and make measurements,” she explains. “Some kids don’t know fractions. If you don’t understand what three-fourths represents, how are you going to measure three-fourths of an inch accurately? It’s a hands-on application of all the common core.”

(Here, for example, she’s using Reading: Informational Text Standard 4, as students determine the meaning of technical phrases like “right sides together” and analyze their impact on sewing outcomes, and Reading Informational Text Standard 5: Students analyze how step-by-step instructions develop key sewing concepts, such as proper seam alignment.)

Despite initial challenges, Zimmerman has quickly found her footing as a confident and resourceful educator. “Classroom management was the hardest part,” she admits. “I’ve read my textbooks, I studied, I had a management plan, but being able to actually execute in real-time is difficult.”

Each challenge has made her more adaptable and her students are better for it; kids proudly prove their learning through tangible, material products– be it clothing or home models they created during their time with her. “I see kids wearing their pajama pants they made in class, and it’s the best feeling,” she says.

Even students who seem disengaged in class have surprised her, with time. “I had one student that did nothing—he was super laid back, and didn’t participate often in class,” Zimmerman recalls. “And then I saw him after school, and he was like, ‘I think hand sewing was probably the most important skill I’ve ever learned. I had to sew my pants because they ripped.’ And I was like, ‘I didn’t realize how much you had picked up in class. It was great to hear how you used hand sewing to fix your pants!’”

There’s something poetic about starting your first year as a FACS and CCS teacher without sewing machines, forced to examine the previously assumed fabric of your year. It takes courage and great skill to examine your old, patterned approach, and weave a new tessellation, tailoring something durable, meticulously crafted, enduring. And, in the end, her course is exceptional; students and peers have praised her alike for creating an atmosphere where you can dream, fail, learn, create, grow.

Thank you, Mckayla Zimmerman, for sowing a love for learning in the hearts of our students. Thank you for making Provo a place of learning.