By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

Gerry Fairbank gets a bit out of control when it comes to the holiday door-decorating contest.

The Radford High School teacher doesn't just slap up some tinsel and twinkling lights to consider herself decorated.

You won't find her classroom door wrapped like a present with one, lonely "Happy Holidays" sign pasted on top.

Fairbank is a theme decorator.

And she doesn't just use one door. Her students decorate both doors into her classroom, the nine-foot wall in between and the hallway ceiling above.

For the fifth year in a row, in what has become almost a foregone conclusion, Fairbank's door won the holiday decorating contest. Her students won a pizza lunch out of the victory Tuesday; the school paid for the pizza and Fairbank brought the soft drinks.

Some teachers don't even bother to enter the contest anymore because they know Fairbank has a grand scheme in the works.

The domination of the holiday-door contest started in 1998 when Fairbank looked for a way to decorate based on her curriculum.

Fairbank's prior students have created a display on the Seven Wonders of the World. They've crafted dolls from countries around the world, then attached them to the walls, where it appeared that they were traveling on a giant bridge to Hawai'i, all wearing tiny Santa hats. One year they folded 1,001 paper cranes that hung from the hallway ceiling alongside one giant crane and the message "Peace on Earth." Last year there was a giant American flag with a tribute to Sept. 11 victims.

This year, the theme her social studies classes used to decorate was the Korean War. "When you use a history book there's so many details missing," Fairbank said.

Fairbank wanted to make the war come alive in pictures, so the class downloaded photos of soldiers and military leaders.

The 6-foot-high, 9-foot-long display includes dozens of black-and-white photos from the war, text explaining the context and conflicts, and maps.

Small, wiry strands of fake holly are wound throughout the photos to represent barbed wire. Camouflage netting borrowed from the school's Junior ROTC program drapes down from the ceiling and a sign reads "Freedom is Not Free." Uncle Sam "I Want YOU" signs hang on the door along with American flags and photos of all of her students. A wooden Christmas tree on one door has student-made decorations.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Korean War and an influx of Korean immigration to Hawai'i. Fairbank, who is of Korean descent, chose the theme for the upcoming anniversary and because her students have been studying war and war strategy from ancient times through the current war on terrorism.

With 80 percent of Radford's students coming from military families, Fairbank thought her students would take interest in the project.

"My students really enjoy working on this," she said. "I stress teamwork, responsibility and all the core values."

The display will come down by the end of this week as the school gets ready for Christmas vacation.

It may find a new home in the school library, but Fairbank is already working on next year's theme: Save the Earth, with a rain forest on the wall and Christmas trees with ornaments made from recycled soda cans.

Correction: A previous version of this column misidentified the school Gerry Fairbank teaches at. Fairbank teaches at Radford High School.