~faith~

In April of 1979 I was only 4 weeks away from receiving my teaching degree back home in Kansas.  I had taken the "six year plan", having put school on hold during my senior year when I got married.  It was good to finally be able to know that sooner or later, all that hard work would pay off and I would be able to secure a teaching position.

One Saturday morning in April as I walked out of the post office back in my hometown of Haven, I ran into Mr. Harold Voth.  Harold was the superintendent of the Haven district and a man I greatly admired.  We stopped for a moment and visited.  He asked about how much more school was left for me and when I told him that my graduation was quickly approaching, Mr. Voth looked at me and smiled.  

"I've got a couple of positions open.  Would you come to work for us here at Haven?", he asked me.

That was it.  A five-minute conversation on the sidewalk in front of the post office flagpole in Haven was my very first job interview and trust me, it only took about 5 seconds to say "yes".  No questions were really asked because Harold Voth had known me all of my life.  He had been my principal at Burrton Elementary School until I was in the third grade.  Our family moved to Haven then and the Voth family ended up moving there a couple of years later.  As the long time superintendent of the Haven district, he'd had plenty of chances to see the person that I was becoming.  That knowledge of who a little girl named Peggy had grown up to be was sufficient for him.  To that kind and very wise man who gave me my start in the classroom, I shall forever be grateful.

4 decades into the future I am looking for a new teaching position as Mike and I make plans to return back home closer towards Kansas when this current school year is up in May.  I have filled out countless online applications and visited with dozens of people as I make decisions that will ultimately point me to the school district that will undoubtedly be my last one to work for.  At age 63, I'm hoping to be able to teach at least 3 or 4 years longer.  There is teacher in me yet and my heart is happy when I am with children.  My health is good and my spirit is right.  So long as I can be effective and continue to make a difference somewhere out there, I plan to teach.  The question is now, where shall that be?

Going through the reflection questions on many of the online applications has been an interesting part of this whole transition phase from 2nd grade in Grandfield Elementary School to "who knows where ?"  in the future.  Questions pertaining to classroom management, collaborating with colleagues, integrating the latest in technology, and differentiating instruction give me plenty of things to ponder.  I've been a teacher for so long, that I sometimes have to really stop and think about what my answer should be.  What would I have responded in 1979?  How did I feel about it in 1996?  Had anything changed by 2007?  Will it be any different in 2019?  

For certain is this.  I am still learning.

I've been blessed beyond measure in the years that followed that chance meeting with Mr. Voth back in my Kansas hometown.  I've taught the children of Haven as well as Old Order Amish students in the nearby community of Yoder, Kansas.  Students in Hutchinson, Kansas have called me their "teacher" too.  I found great delight in teaching the students at Olathe Elementary in the mountains of southwestern Colorado before moving to the plains of Texas.  While we have been here, it's been a privilege to teach in classrooms at Petrolia, Texas and Randlett, Oklahoma.  Now I'm currently in my second year at Grandfield, Oklahoma, a place that I have really grown to love.  It's a wonderful school district and community, filled with folks who really do care about their children's future.

Somewhere down the road, God has a new plan for me and I intend to follow where I'm being led.  The universe is realigning with many different people, not only for me.  After many weeks of waiting, it's almost time to find out where the next stop shall be.  

Wherever it is, I look forward to it in faith.

Sherry and I were able to share many years of experience in the classroom with one another.  We often talked on the phone after school each day to see how things had gone or shared ideas of how to reach a kid that was having challenges.  A few days before Sherry died, I was at the hospital in Altus visiting with her.  With a huge lump in my throat, I told my big sister that I didn't think I could do it any more without her there to guide me along the way.  She mustered up a smile and a huge shot of courage and told me that I would be just fine even though she no longer would be there.  It was the day she told me that I would soon be on my own and not even a week later, she was right.