May 12

Written by: ngreditor
5/12/2010 10:51 AM 

Reading, travel, and treasures: Joan Nelson reflects on retiring

Kenneth Purscell

When the bell rings on the last day of school, it will be the end—almost—of a long and distinguished career.

“I started in 1968,” says Joan Nelson, fourth grade teacher at Newman Grove Elementary School, who is retiring. “I did take twenty years out to raise boys, but I substituted the whole time. I started substituting in this school in 1971.”

In 1991 she began teaching full time at the elementary school. “I was the ‘extra’ teacher,” she says; “I got the other half of a large class that was split.”

She claims to be a person not daunted by transitions, especially since she had taught in Genoa for a year and a half and had worked in three different rooms in that time. “For my first years here I never had two years in a row with the same grade,” she says.

But for the last ten years she has been teaching the fourth grade, with Social Studies for grades four through six added in. Joan has been such a stable fixture that one third grade boy this year, hearing about her retirement, told her should have kept teaching one more year.

And in all of that time, and in all of those classrooms, she has tried to instill a love of reading. “I’ll pick out a book about a social study topic or current event and read that out loud to the class. For sixth grade I’ve been reading a diary of exiles from Cuba. For fifth graders I’ve read about the role of Quakers in the Civil War.”

Joan’s favorite moment has been one that she’s seen every year. “The best is when a struggling child suddenly gets an unexpected good grade,” she says. “You see the light bulb go on and watch a young person say, ‘I get it!’”

She has enjoyed traveling for many years. “I got to travel a lot, both as a child and as an adult. I’ve been to all the states west of here and most states east of here.” As a result, she has been able to bring these experiences into the classroom. “Every trip has added to teaching,” she says, showing me a tiny jar with ash from Mt. St. Helens.

In fact, as we talk she shows me a number of items: artifacts from her trips, good books (that she is giving away), and some teaching aids that her mother used before her.

She is spending a day cleaning out a closet packed with “valuables.” Many of them will be going to the Methodist Church for the summer rummage sale.

If there is anything that brings a stop to our interview, it is her realization that she is cleaning out more than one generation of experience.

“Education has played a role in my entire life,” Joan says. Several women in her family were teachers. That is now almost at an end. “I have one niece who may be teaching soon, but she isn’t now.”

Much has changed in 42 years. “The biggest change is the placing of importance on assessment,” Joan says. “It has become much more difficult to be a teacher. And Nebraska is not noted for paying educators well. It is becoming harder and harder to find people who are interested. And it’s even harder to find people willing to stay in the state.”

Next week is not the end of her teaching career, though. Joan will get to lead one last event, one of her favorites. “For years now I’ve done a summer workshop for high skill readers. Part of it includes a field trip. One year we went to Council Bluffs, then along the Loess Hills to Sioux City, and then back to Wayne, just seeing what this country has been like and connecting that with our reading.”

And then? What will retirement bring?

“I don’t have any definite plans,” Joan says. “I need to clean house. We’re going to Jamaica for a family wedding. I want to spend more time with my parents. And then I’ll plan what I want to do.”

Her husband Verdel certainly has something to say about it. “He wants to go to Washington, D.C., and I’d like to too. I love to travel and I love maps.”

She grins. “Once, on a flight from France to Dallas—yes, that was a long flight. But as I got up to go, I saw posted on a galley wall a flight plan that showed our route all the way up north over Greenland and Nova Scotia. And I thought that would be something a class would like to see. So I asked the flight attendant if I could have it, and she said yes.”

And probably somewhere, on a flight to some place, Joan will see something and become intrigued. She’ll pick it up and bring it back to show…who knows? She’ll show it to a grandchild, maybe, or a neighbor, or a friend. Or, just perhaps, she’ll share this treasure with a small child and spark her love of travel and learning.

Copyright ©2010 Newman Grove Reporter