~not one little bit~

     When school begins once again in now just 43 days more, I will be teaching 4th, 5th, and 6th graders English, spelling, and writing.  It will be a brand new experience for me in my 38th year of teaching but I like a challenge.  Variety is good in all aspects of life and for me as a teacher, it has kept things interesting.  There is no room for complacency when your teaching assignment is the same year after year and certainly no room for it when you are beginning a different assignment either.   Good teachers constantly are learning something new and that's important whether you are teaching the same classroom as the year before or when you are starting something totally different, just like I will be doing.

     Looking back now over the past nearly 4 decades in the field of education, I have had such a wide range of teaching assignments.  When I first began in August of 1979, I was so thankful to have any job that I would have gladly accepted whatever I was offered.  I meant that too! 

     Just give me a classroom please!

     The greatest amount of time that I spent at any one position was a 16-year stay in the combination first and second grade room at the small public school in Yoder, Kansas.  Yoder is a part of USD 312, Haven and at the time I was there 95% of the student body were Old Order Amish.  It was a teacher's "dream job" and my heart is full of many good memories while I was there.  Those were the early days of my being an educator and from 1981-1997 that little school along Yoder Road was where you could find me.  I was blessed to be there in the first place and felt sadness upon leaving yet after being there for close to 2 decades I knew that it was time to move on and try something different.  

     The grade that I have taught the longest in my time as a teacher has been first grade.  Including the 16 years at Yoder and additional ones at Haven Grade School, Morgan Elementary and Lincoln Elementary in Hutchinson, Kansas as well as last year at Olathe, Colorado, I have been gifted with 22 years in all working with little people.  Two of those years were spent in Developmental First grade classrooms where the students needed an extra year after leaving kindergarten in order to be more ready for first grade the following year.  

     My first classroom was offered to me even before I graduated from college in 1979.  The late Harold Voth of USD 312, Haven happened to meet me in the post office in downtown Haven one Saturday morning in late April.  Mr. Voth had known me all of my life having been my superintendent when I was a student attending both Burrton and Haven Public Schools.  When he asked me if I'd like to come and teach for him the following school year, I did not have to think twice.  It seems strange to realize it but my first interview for a job was completed in about 4 minutes while standing on Kansas Avenue in downtown Haven. Those two years as a Title I math instructor gave me solid and much needed experience in classroom management and I found it rewarding to work with kids who were having struggles in math.  Having had my own challenges with math as a kid, I could identify with them so much.  I went on to have four more years of teaching Title I students in both reading and math in the years that would follow.  Those years helped me to become a better teacher as I had to balance preparing lessons for many different grade levels.  

    I spent a year teaching 3rd grade and 3 years as the ESL teacher at Avenue A back in Hutchinson.  I even had the chance to teach Spanish to middle school students for two years as well.  I love the Spanish language and have enjoyed all of the times that I've been afforded the chance to work with ESL students and their parents.  It has been during these times that I've been able to teach English to adults and that is a rewarding thing to me in and of itself.  

     While it probably would have been much easier to stay put in one classroom or even one district for the last 37 years, I'm really glad that I did not.  Moving around from time to time has given me the chance to meet new people and to learn from them.  

     Once I was asked what I felt one of the greatest character traits of an exemplary teacher was.  That answer came very easy to me and the answer is this.

     Exemplary teachers are those who are willing to learn something new each day.  Sometimes the lessons come from their teaching cohorts and other times they come from the very students that sit in their classrooms.  

     I look forward to the challenges that the new school year upcoming will present to me.  Will it be difficult?  Perhaps sometimes.  Will I make mistakes?  Oh yeah.  Plenty of them.  Am I sorry that I didn't stay retired after leaving the classroom back in 2010?

     Not one little bit.

The very first exemplary teacher that I ever knew was Josephine Marmont.  She was my kindergarten teacher at Burrton (KS) Grade School and the greatest "kid wrangler" that there ever was.  She handled all 30 of us on her own and we all grew up to be good boys and girls.

The 4th graders that I taught two years ago at Olathe Elementary in Colorado could not have come along at a better time in this school teacher's life.  I needed them and they needed me.  Hard to believe that they are now heading to the 6th grade.

This is my sister Sherry who was a teacher for over 40 years.  She has grown to be my mentor and I will always feel that I learned how to be a better teacher just by watching her.  Although she is now retired, Sherry still is helping to encourage me as I prepare for my own classroom.