
DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997                 TAG: 9704030190

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY NIA NGINA MEEKS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  127 lines

SHE'S SIMPLY THE BEST TEACHER OF THE YEAR EVA ROUPAS IS A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW.

EVA ROUPAS HASN't come back to Earth yet.

Even though it has been a week since the Virginia Beach school division named her its ``Teacher of the Year,'' she continues to float a bit.

Roupas expects to land Monday, when spring break ends.

``Students will bring you back to where you were,'' she said, laughing. ``They can have a humbling effect.''

After close to two decades at the chalkboard, the Salem High School drama teacher knows the characteristics and mores of teen-agers. And her contemporaries know her, saying she deserved every bit of the annual award that spotlights the best the Beach has to offer its student population.

``She sees us as more than just students,'' Salem 11th-grader Chris Jachimiak said. ``She sees all her students as people with potential. And she's always trying to bring it out of us.''

Teachers of the arts often get saddled with the label ``flaky.'' But with her flowing dark hair and romantic floral dresses, Roupas seems more like a Meryl Streep than a beatnik in psychedelic colors and clogs.

For Roupas, the actor, the stage is her classroom.

For Roupas, the director, the wings are the conference rooms of students, parents and teachers.

``I feel like the success I've had at school has been as a result of so many people working with me,'' she said. ``None of this I could have done by myself.''

Yet, Roupas, 41, began preparing for that success a long time ago.

She has spent eight years at Salem. Before that, she taught at Green Run High School, as well as in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Her parents are native Virginians. She grew up in Milwaukee.

While she enjoyed drama, her primary focus at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire was speech and communications. She didn't fall into drama until late in her college career. Even then, teaching, not acting, was her goal. Often, Roupas said, the two go together in the classroom.

``All teachers are actors to a degree,'' she said. ``I think a lot of times teachers portray a spontaneous sense of freshness, even if they've been teaching the same thing for 20 years. Students mirror what you give them. If you look like you're excited and enthusiastic, they'll pick it up and run with it, even if they're not nuts about the subject.''

Chris Jachimiak was more of the class clown than the thoughtful thespian at Salem. His brother urged him to take Roupas' class. After talking with her, he did. Now he has a different audience to show off in front of.

``That's the type of person she likes to see acting,'' Jachimiak said. ``She'll work with you until you get it right. She doesn't want you to quit.

``Her morale is always up. You can't be in a bad mood around her. You might be sitting to yourself, being quiet. She'll come up to you and cheer you up. She'll always work with you and always try to make your day a little bit happier,'' he said.

Little treats such as the doughnuts Roupas brings in for the 6 a.m. rehearsals help, too.

``She is so totally caring about her kids and they know this,'' Evelyn Nicholson said. She teaches sophomore English at Salem and worked with Roupas at Green Run as well. ``She just connects with those kids.''

Colleague Diana Olmstead agreed. She handles senior English classes at Salem.

``Eva is like Mother Hen,'' Olmstead said. ``It's almost like parenting.''

While Roupas is not a mother, she sees the thread between teaching and parenting.

``I would never be one to say you (a teacher) can replace a parent,'' she said. ``But every once in a while, in talking with my sister, who is a parent, we have parallel feelings. You have a certain amount of love for the people you do teach and hope they achieve greatness.''

Her zeal leaves most in awe.

``I tell her she must go home and pass out,'' Olmstead said. ``Literally, she will be there with the kids at 6 a.m., work all weekend. They call her at home. She's always full of energy. I don't know how she does it.''

Roupas' secret lies in the fact that she doesn't work. Never has.

``One of our secretaries about three years ago gave me a sign that said `Find a job that you love and you'll never work a day in your life,' '' Roupas said. ``It's true if that's a source of your fulfillment. As long as I can continue to do this, I will. It will never become a drudgery. As soon as it does, I hope I'm retiring the next day.''

Fellow teachers at Salem hope that day is far off. Roupas helps many of them animate subject matter through a repertory class she runs called ``Drama Exposed.''

Teachers put in requests, describing the subject, be it the digestive system or the novel ``To Kill a Mockingbird.'' The students come up with scripts and act out scenes dealing with the subject.

``I wouldn't know how to begin to do something on the digestive system,'' Nicholson said. ``(Drama Exposed) puts a sense of closure on the lessons. You can see some of the students mouthing the words as they act them on stage.''

In 1994, the Educational Theater Association honored Roupas and her program with its Innovative Educational Theater award. The Cincinnati-based organization promotes theater arts among secondary school students.

``Her project was considered wonderfully innovative in her teaching process,'' association spokeswoman Toni Brotons said. ``We are starting to realize using drama to help others learn in other subject areas is quite effective. She was on the ground floor with some of that.''

Innovation can often be time-consuming. It's not unusual for Roupas to spend half the night working with her students, only to come back in at the crack of dawn to do it all over again.

``Either my time management is off, or something,'' she said. ``But things need to get done.

``As long as they work as hard as I work, this relationship will be fine. Every time things go well, I push the marker up a little higher to see if they can jump over it.'' ILLUSTRATION: ON THE COVER

Students hold a jubilant Eva Roupas aloft after learning she had

been named Virginia Beach Teacher of the Year. Photos by

Virginian-Pilot photographer D. Kevin Elliott.

Eva Roupas with some of the students in her theater class at Salem

High School. ``All teachers are actors to a degree,'' she says.

Tim Jenney, superintendent of Virginia Beach Public Schools, tells a

surprised Roupas she's been named Teacher of the Year. Roupas has

taught at Salem High for eight years.

Eva Roupas listens during a class exercise. ``She sees all her

students as people with potential,'' student Chris Jachimiak says.

Graphic

SALEM PLAY