"This year, I celebrate my 40th year of professional teaching in SPS, with my first nine years at Pleasant View and my past 31 years at the WINGS Program at Phelps Center for Gifted Education. This year I celebrate by “graduating” (retiring) with the Class of 2023.
After graduating from Kickapoo, doing practicums with Sara Lampe at WINGS (Pershing) and student teaching with Jimmye Boyd (Kickapoo) during college, I started teaching 7-8 grade ELA at Pleasant View while also coaching basketball and volleyball, scoring boys basketball and district junior high track meets, and advising the National Junior Honor Society, The Outlook (newspaper), and The Viewpoint (yearbook). Pleasant View was a tight-knit community with lots of love and Bluejay pride. Pleasant View became my school home.
Though I never imagined leaving Pleasant View, eventually a rare opening at WINGS provided the opportunity to Work with the Individual Needs of Gifted Students (WINGS) with Sara Lampe and her phenomenal faculty and staff. I so enjoyed working with many SPS colleagues during professional learning opportunities as well, sometimes as a learner and sometimes as a teacher.
Each day in each classroom, each gymnasium, or on each stage, I learned about teaching by teaching each student. I learned so much while co-teaching and collaborating with so many SPS teachers as we created and implemented differentiated and multidisciplinary curriculum for our students.
Each year, new students and colleagues arrive. It’s good work! I honor my students, mostly, many who have graduated from SPS, who have pursued college, career, and have created loving families of their own, who are possibly currently serving as SPS teachers, administrators, staff, and all who are living amazing lives, unique to each, and often keeping in touch with me. They show up occasionally and relive some memories of our times together.
Thank you for providing me with forty years of opportunities to make my life of work a work of heART. “Have WINGS, Take Flight!”
