Energetic Casa history teacher publishes academic paper

June 18, 2003

By LOIS PEARLMAN
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Casa Grande history teacher Paula (Smith) Biancalana is what your mom would call "a real live wire."

She fairly bounces through campus greeting students, teachers and staff. When she reaches her own room, and launches into any of her favorite topics -- like education, her life, her students or her master's thesis, she is off and running like the proverbial express train.

For the past five years Biancalana has been funneling all that energy into her three lives -- mother and partner, high school social studies teacher and Sonoma State University graduate student.

Now she can add a fourth title to her resume, published author. This year, for the second time, the Sonoma State University chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, a national history honors society, published one of her academic papers in its award-winning journal, "In Retrospect."

In honor of her achievement, chapter president Dave Murphy presented copies of the journals to the Casa Grande library.

Her 2001 paper is on Flavius Josephus, a little-known Jewish historian who was brought back to Rome after the Roman Empire conquered Judea. Josephus' work, Biancalana said, is the main authority for the early history of the Jewish people.

The other paper focused on Irish home rule, the limited self-governance the Irish people experienced under the British parliamentary system in the early 1900s. Dissatisfaction with home rule eventually led to the Irish rebellion.

Her master's thesis, which will probably take another year, explores how the expansion of public education for Irish children under British rule led to the Irish rebellion. The translation of Irish mythology into English and the ability of more people to read, she said, instilled the Irish people with pride in their own culture. That made them want to fight to free their country from the British.

Biancalana said her students at Casa Grande "get a kick" out of the fact that she is also a student, and has to write papers just like they do.

"They're aware I'm empathetic to what they have to do. There is mutual respect on both sides. We all commiserate with each other," she said.

It also provides her with fresh information that she can include in her own curriculum. And, using her student password, she can provide online access to the SSU library of research for her students.

Biancalana said she originally went back to college because she was slated to teach a new subject, world history, and she wanted to prepare for the class. After a couple of years she realized she loved being back in school and decided to go for a master's degree. An advanced degree will also allow her to teach at the college level, something she would like to do in the future.

Born and raised in Petaluma, she graduated from Casa Grande in 1979, earned a cultural anthropology degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and got a job unrelated to her major.

But she was unhappy with her work, and being the child of schoolteachers, decided to go back to college and get a credential. She married, had two children, got divorced, and fell in love with a teacher at Kenilworth Junior High. She said he is her biggest supporter.

Currently, she teaches an integrated U.S. history and junior English class with teacher Kim Sharp. Next year she will team teach a sophomore English/world history class. Integrating the subjects allows students to develop a deeper understanding of the historical period they are studying, she said.

"We find the kids have more to grasp onto if we work the history around the historical novels they read," she explained.

(Contact Lois Pearlman at lpearlman@arguscourier.com)