Theodor Seuss Geisel, a writer and cartoonist, has helped generations of children learn to read with books written under the name Dr. Seuss.

Now, nearly two decades after his death, a Scotland County teacher is using his writings to teach students about something else – history.

Amber Watkins, a Scotland County social studies teacher, hopes to connect her world history students to American history through these memorable childhood works, something she felt would be more effective than traditional lecturing and textbook reading.

"(Seuss) was a teacher in that a lot of his books weren't really kids books; they had kids' themes, but they were also adult books that were making statements and giving messages," Watkins said.

This approach is meant to keep her students at Scotland Early College High School interested.

"It gives them a fun way of researching and looking at the world," Watkins said. "Some of them want to make their own Dr. Seuss books, some of them just want to put Dr. Seuss pictures above historical events classes."

Watkins is energetic as she tells her students about the assignment, smiling as she answers questions on the guidelines and expectations.

Her students are beaming as they open their laptops and start doing guided online research for their group projects.

In sharp contrast to Watkins' colorful clothes and engaging personality and the lively student discussions, the walls of her classroom are bare.

She explained that if she had her way, the walls would be covered with posters and student projects from floor to ceiling, but having a classroom at Richmond Community College lends little leeway to decorating the wall.

Instead, sparse artwork and decorations are tacked into a single strip of cork board that winds around the white cinderblock walls.

As her students began working in groups of two on their Dr. Seuss projects, Watkins told The Laurinburg Exchange that she uses a similar approach in all of her classes.

For example, in her civics classes, she hates teaching about the three branches of government.

"Instead of learning about government through reading a book, lecturing and class discussion, they learned about the branches of government by studying the president's role and congress's role in healthcare reform," Watkins said.

She had her students conduct interviews, watch documentaries, and launch personal websites on the topic of healthcare as part of this project.

A key component to Watkins' style is her use of something known as web 2.0, which means user-generated web content.

Her students design web pages, have online discussions through blackboard and are engaged through other tech-savvy activities that also give them tools for the modern world.

This style has won Watkins the adoration of her students and peers and helped her being named the 2008-2009 Scotland County Teacher of the Year. Watkins is now one of two regional finalists for teacher of the year.

Ninth grader Blake Strickland said she is a fan of Watkins' teaching style.

"She's a really good teacher," Strickland said. "She explains everything if we have questions and gets really in depth.

"We have a lot of times to be creative," the student continued. "She gives us a lot of projects, but they are fun ones that we can do with other members of the class. We have a lot of fun in here."

Strickland sees Watkins as being more than just an ordinary teacher.

"(Watkins) reminds me more of a principal than a teacher because she is more encouraging and very specific about what she does," Strickland said. "She is fun too, so she's like a teacher. She's like both."

The ninth-grader also professed her own joy for the Dr. Seuss project.

"We really like this one because it is really creative for us to do," Strickland said. "We really have our choice with what we do with this."

Watkins was a lateral-entry teacher whose undergraduate degree was in political science and African studies. She said she did not know she wanted to be a teacher until she volunteered to work in a Latin American country.

"The summer before my senior year, I went to the Dominican Republic and I volunteered with Orphanage Outreach," Watkins said. "At the orphanage, I was a volunteer teacher ... the experience was overwhelming for me."

"The group that I worked with was the age group that a lot of volunteers really didn't work with because they were older, pre-teen to teenage and they were full of anger because many of them were victims of prostitution," Watkins said.

The social studies teacher remembered that parents of some of the students would come and get their children, have the child perform sexual acts for money, then return the student to the orphanage.

"There were a lot of experiences in their lives that would cause them not to be trusting of others, but during my time there, I formed a relationship with them," Watkins said. "We were able to communicate beyond the language barrier."

Watkins ended her class the same way she ends every class – with the phrase: "Make it a great day."