HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2009-06-17, Page 11i
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The Huron Expositor • June 17, 2009 Page 11
News
hree SPS teachers, with-cornbined 98 _years' teaching, retiring
Three teachers with a combined 98
years of experience are retiring from
Seaforth Public School this June.
- Georgina Reynolds, who taught for
39 years, Carolyn Griffin, who taught
for 34 years and Nancy Kale, who
taught part-time for 25 years are all
leaving the classroom but they'll still
likely be familiar faces at the school.
"I will try to get on the supply
teachers' list and will probably be
here volunteering if I can't," says
Griffin, adding that her colleagues
likely will too.
Griffin, who spent her entire ca-
reer both teaching and living in Sea -
forth, began teaching music at both
Seaforth Public School and Seaforth
District High School in 1975. She
also taught music at Walton Public
School when it was twinned with
Seaforth Public School.
"I have my degree in music so that
was right up my alley," she says.
Her favourite times as a .music
teacher were the many operettas her
students performed including the
Wizard of Oz, Oliver, Treasure Is-
land and many more.
Once, while staging A Christmas
Carol, a snowstorm prevented one of
the student actors from getting into
town and the vice principal at the
time took over the role.
"He didn't know the words. He had
them on a tray but it was dark and
he couldn't see them so he ended up
singing, 'And, I don't know the words'
at one point. It was pretty hysteri-
-
cal," remembers Griffin.
While she's been a classroom
teacher for every grade except Kin-
dergarten and Grade 1, she's stuck
with Grade 6 ever since standard-
ized EQAO testing began.
"With EQAO, you have to have the
whole curriculum taught by the mid-
dle of May because the students are
expected to know all of it so you have
to be very organized The testing is
difficult on the kids but we always
have treats at the end of the day
and the data collected helps the
whole school," says Griffin.
For the past 23 years, Griffin has
been attending the extracurricular
activities of her students, sitting in
the stands at hockey, baseball and
soccer games or attending piano
and dance recitals.
"Once I was invited by 'one of my
weaker students to attend a hock-
ey game in Blyth so I went and the
mom of the boy was crying when I
got there. She said I had no idea
how important it was to her son
that I" came. So, I thought if it's
that important, I'd better start do-
ing more of it," she says, adding the
student would be 31 by now.
Both . Griffin and Reynolds have
made the unusual choice to stay
and live in Seaforth for mos' of
their careers, a choice that Griffin
says has given the school some con
ttriuity. -
Dan Schwab photo
Carolyn Griffin, Georgina Reynolds and Nancy Kale, with a combined 98 years of
teaching experience, are retiring this year from Seaforth Public School.
"Mrs. Reynolds and I have been get many requests of students to go
through so much together - the into my class because I taught their
births of our children, the deaths of brothers and sisters. And, it's grati-
our parents. Principals come and go fying that the parents thought you
but we've been here through it all," did a good job,"
she says.
While she's
made the deci-
sion to retire
so she can look
after her ag-
ing mother and
stepfather, Grif-
fin says it was a
tough decision to
make.
"You don't want
it to end. I usu-
ally cry on the
last day of school
no matter what
because they've
been your kids
for the year," she
says Griffin.
"There were times when adminis-
tration tried to suggest I move to an-
other school but staying here gives
me more understanding and empa-
thy. You're able to know a student
and where they come from without
prying. I always felt it was very im-
portant," she says.
"Right now, I have four ball sched-
ules and two soccer schedules on my
fridge," she says.
And, with that sort of longevity in
the same school, she's taught many
of the parents of her students, an-
other benefit, of staying put • for 34
years.
"The more you get to know, a child,
the better you can relate to them. I
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says, adding she's been getting teary
everytime she thinks about retire-
ment. -
"It hasn't been a boring career -
there's been lots of change and op-
portunity to teach different ages and
classes. I love them all. It's going to
be hard to leave," she says.
Kale, who's been teaching at Sea-
forth Public School for the past eight
years, says she's had a varied career
doing supply work, part-time teach-
ing and filling in for teachers on
leave.
She started teaching in 1.978 and
has worked at many schools through-
out Huron and Perth Counties in-
cluding Mitchell Public and Downie
Central.
With most of her experience teach-
ing primary students art and mu-
sic, Kale says she loves teaching the
youngest population in the school.
"They're so innocent and enthusi-
astic. They're like sponges at that
age," she says.
Kale started with the Grade 1 class
that is now graduating from Grade 8
See RETIRING, Page 19
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