For more than a decade, Dolly Sanders has been part of the Skirball’s education story: first as an LAUSD teacher bringing students to campus, and then as one of the original members of the Skirball Teacher Advisory Council (STAC). As she prepares to retire from teaching and conclude her service on STAC, Dolly leaves behind a legacy of generosity, imagination, and deep care for students. 

Dolly is the kind of teacher who notices what each student needs to feel included. She creates classrooms where stories matter, where languages are welcomed, where curiosity is encouraged, and where learning can begin with a suitcase, a drawing, a recycled object, a garden lesson, or a question a child is brave enough to ask. Her years of partnership with the Skirball reflect what is possible when museums listen closely to educators who know their students fully, not only as learners, but as young people with histories, families, languages, hopes, and stories of their own. 

A Teacher’s Eye for Connection 

For Dolly, some of the most memorable Skirball experiences have centered on storytelling. She recalled students exploring immigration stories in the galleries, opening suitcases, reading letters, and considering what people bring with them when they move to a new place. For students at her school, where many languages are spoken and many families carry their own migration stories, the experience created immediate points of connection. 

Back in the classroom, Dolly extended the conversation by asking students what they would bring if they had to move. Their answers were not always what an adult might expect. Some chose a beloved object, a pet, or something that simply mattered deeply to them. But that was the point. The exercise helped students understand that every journey carries memory, meaning, and choice. It allowed them to enter a larger history through the door of their own lives. 

“I like things to be a bit more child-centered,” Dolly shared. “I like them to use their imagination.” 

That simple teaching philosophy has shaped her work for years. Through STAC and the Skirball’s educator resources, Dolly found new ways to make learning more creative, personal, and connected to students’ own stories. Rather than beginning only with a required standard or curriculum page, Dolly often begins with imagination: an artifact, a character, a setting, a question, or a story students want to tell. From there, she weaves in writing, science, history, language development, and critical thinking. 

In Dolly’s classroom, students do not simply complete assignments. They build stories. They create characters. They revise their writing because they want their ideas to be understood. They learn punctuation because they hear what happens when a sentence does not stop. They begin with something that belongs to them, and Dolly gently helps them discover how much learning can grow from it. 

Making Museum Learning Classroom-Ready 

Dolly has also helped the Skirball understand what teachers need in order to make museum learning useful, relevant, and possible. As a STAC member, she has brought the perspective of a working classroom teacher navigating changing standards, district requirements, language needs, limited time, and the everyday realities of school life. Her insights have helped the Skirball align lessons with classroom goals so that principals and teachers can see museum learning not as an “extra,” but as a meaningful extension of instruction. 

That contribution is especially important because Dolly knows how powerful museum experiences can be for students who may not otherwise have access to them. She spoke about children who live only miles from major cultural and natural landmarks but have never had the opportunity to visit. Field trips, buses, and sustained partnerships help open doors that might otherwise remain closed, especially for schools working within tight budgets and limited transportation options. 

For upper-grade students studying ancient civilizations, Dolly remembered how learning at the Skirball’s simulated archaeological dig helped history become real. As students excavated and examined artifacts, they were invited to ask what they had found, what it might reveal, and what story it could tell. “You can read about it, you can talk about it,” she reflected, but when students are doing the work themselves, the learning becomes memorable. 

This is the kind of wisdom Dolly has brought to STAC again and again. She helps translate between the world of the museum and the world of the classroom. She helps Skirball staff understand what will resonate with teachers, what will work developmentally for students, and how a museum experience can become something that continues long after the bus ride back to school. 

A Classroom Built on Care 

Dolly’s care for students extends far beyond lesson planning. Speaking five languages, she has been able to welcome students and families across language barriers, sometimes translating for parents and helping families feel seen at school. In the conversation, she recalled moments when families were surprised and relieved to find that someone could speak with them in their home language. For Dolly, this is part of the work: making sure students and families feel met, understood, and included. 

That same spirit was visible during a Skirball classroom residency connected to Noah’s Ark themes of reuse and environmental care. Students designed tote bags while reflecting on visual symbols, advocacy, and reducing single-use plastic. At the time, Dolly’s classroom included students who spoke English, Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian, and Armenian. The project gave every student a way to participate because the shared goal of caring for the planet was accessible to all. 

For Skirball educators, seeing Dolly in her classroom has been a lesson in what partnership truly looks like. Her teaching is rooted in respect. She sees students as full human beings, capable of thought, feeling, creativity, and contribution. She creates structure, but she also creates room. She sets expectations, but she also listens. She makes space for students to bring who they are into what they are learning. 

Her influence has extended to newer Skirball learning spaces as well. When the Education team was developing ideas for the Noah’s Ark Gardens, Dolly helped staff think through science standards, water cycles, grade-level fit, and how garden-based learning could support students in concrete, age-appropriate ways. Her perspective helped ensure that the garden would not only be beautiful, but useful to teachers and meaningful for children. 

Helping Students See Themselves 

As Dolly looks toward retirement, her hope for the future of museum education is beautifully clear: she wants students to see themselves in museums. That might happen through an artist’s background, an image of a community, an object that sparks recognition, or a story that helps a child connect their own life to something larger. 

That hope captures the heart of her legacy. Dolly has helped the Skirball build educational experiences where students are not passive visitors, but active meaning makers. Through her years of service on STAC, she has shown how powerful it can be when a teacher brings not only professional expertise, but also tenderness, curiosity, and faith in what young people can do. 

As Dolly closes this chapter of her teaching career, she leaves an enduring imprint on the Skirball’s education work. Her voice has helped shape programs, her insight has strengthened teacher partnerships, and her care has reminded us what every student deserves: to be welcomed, to be challenged, to be supported, and to find a piece of themselves in the stories they encounter.