Jane Hutchison

Jane Hutchison received her undergraduate degree from Kansas State University of Pittsburgh and her Masters degree from Southwest Baptist University of Bolivar MO. She is in her 34th year of teaching, 29 of which have been taught in 2nd grade.

Jane is married to Mike Hutchison who teaches 6th grade science at Grove Middle School. They have two daughters, Kelsie Turley and Keri Mina who along with their husbands are all teachers. They have 5 grandchildren, Kaylin, Ryan, Travis Turlery, Rachel, and Alex Mina.

Jane's main hobby is running. She qualified for and ran in the US Olympic Trials Marathon (26.2 miles) in 1988 by finishing a marathon in Minneapolis MN in 2 hours and 45 minutes. She has run the Boston Marathon 7 times placing 3rd Master (40 and older) in 1990. She has won the Masters division several times in Tulsa 15K Run. She currently ran the Philadelphia Half Marathon in September and took 1st in her age group (60 to 64). She will be running the Memphis Half Marathon in December.

Jane and Mike will both retire from teaching at the end of this school year.

99.9% of the rewards received by teachers are intrinsic. If we're lucky we may receive an extrinsic reward or two through the years. In my 36 years in the classroom I have had nearly 1,000 children say, "She is my Teacher". That is a major reward for me. As my career draws to a close, this is the one statement I will truly miss hearing. I was also very fortunate to receive another external reward from one of my grown up 2nd graders.

Each and every school day my class starts off the day by setting three main goals: Do what's right; do your best; and treat other people the way you want to be treated. I want them to know that their life is not given to them ready-made. They must make it for themselves. Now I've always considered myself a rational, level headed tolerant teacher, and these seemed like very sensible goals for my students to have learned by the time they leave my classroom.

Then there was the year of Tim! We all know him. He's the boy with the irresistible smile, the exceptionally intelligent, original wild child of his generation. The only difference I could see between my classroom and the Titanic was that the Titanic had a band. "Tim" was the word most often spoken in my class. It was indeed a challenging year. I was never sure which one of us, or if either of us, would still be standing by the end of that year.

Then one day, some 15 years later, there we were both, indeed standing! There was Tim, a young United States Marine in full uniform, standing in the doorway of my classroom with his hat held over his heart. The only thing that I recognized about him was that same irresistible smile. I introduced him to my class, then had to whisk my class off and was unable to talk with Tim much.

When I returned, Tim was gone but there was a note on my desk. This note was indeed a huge visible reward for me.

Dear Mrs. Hutchison,

"Due to a lack of time, I really never gave you and opportunity to hear my true thanks and gratitude for all you had ever done for me and believing in me so much. You gave me a confidence of steel, the will of a loyal horse, and the understanding of true grace and patience. You are, and always have been and always will be, the most influential teacher in my life. Bless you Mrs. H. May God bless you as much as you have blessed my life."

Sincerely,

2nd LT. Tim Finley

Class of '88

Public Education is the major influence that has made and is making America the country it has been, and is today. Therefore, it is hard to give and opinion on one major change.

But, in today's world, with the implementation of technology and all the testing pressures, the one change I could imagine being a big influence for teaching is to have the students attend the classroom four days a week and use the fifth day for students to attend block classes, athletics, or special clubs. The teachers could use this day as an in-service day where they could plan, grade, enter computer information, attend workshops, or simply work in their rooms to make them an attractive and inviting place to educate.

This would give the teachers and students four uninterrupted instructional days, which seems to be lacking in today's classroom.