Retiring teacher Patty Avery answers questions

How long have you been a teacher and where have you taught throughout your career?

I’ve been teaching for 33 years, this is finishing 33 right now. I taught 19 years at Oakland Junior High here in town, and 14 here at Rockbridge. When I was in college I promised myself I wouldn’t set foot in a junior high school, but then when I got there I realized that I just kind of fit right in with them. I think teachers are kind of kids at heart themselves. When I moved to high school I think the biggest difference was students’ size. They’re a lot bigger—but their natures are still the same, they’re still kids.

Could you describe what your first year of teaching was like?

I think I had culture shock. I had grown up in a small community in Booneville — small high school, small classes and a rural background. I did my student teaching over there also. So when I came here, all of a sudden I was with bigger community kids, their lives had been different from mine and some of them came from some rocky backgrounds. It took me a while to get used to that, and to realize that that kid who had kind of had a hard go at life was really special to me. It’s been kind of fun to see what I can do to support them in their learning and kind of keep them headed in the right direction — but it was hard that first year.

What are some of your best memories of teaching?

Definitely just watching how kids grow. To watch the look on their face and the way they go from a readiness to learn to moving into that understanding, and then to that competence of those skills, procedures and understanding the concepts. I see that on a daily basis, in small time frames, and then in a big time frame in terms of a year. When I first get the kids they’re very young, and to watch how they grow, change and mature in the course of the year in terms of their readiness to be responsible is great. I think the most amazing thing is watching them learn how to learn.

In what ways is it harder to teach now than a few years ago?

I bet if you asked any teacher in this building, “What’s the one thing that’s hardest for you right now in teaching?”, I think they’re going to tell you class size. The kids deserve our support and attention and it’s just hard to give it … it’s just impossible to keep up sometimes … the kids come every day giving me their best and they deserve more attention than 1/35th of a teacher.

Are your teaching methods the same now as they were when you started? If not, how have they changed?

When I first started out, the style of instruction was pretty much teacher-led, with the teacher in the front of the room … my style in the last 10 years has changed a lot … the nature of our curriculum that I have right now is very collaborative, so in that sense I’m saying less than I’ve ever said before in a class … I’ve learned that if I would be quiet and let them process what they knew then they will get it. Then, they own the knowledge because they’ve made sense of it themselves — they have learned how to learn … it’s more important for me for them to feel like when they walk out of here, I can learn this, than to walk out thinking the teacher stood in front the whole time, lectured and I copied the notes but I can’t do that myself … so in that sense my instruction has changed from more teacher lead to more student collaboration, discussion and making the concepts themselves … I used to have a poster on my wall that said “If you’re talking you ain’t learning,” now my feeling is totally the opposite, if you’re not talking with your group and thinking about your work then you’re not learning everything.

Have advancements in technology affected the way we learn and communicate — with students or parents?

I think technology in some ways, the e-mail, there are just so many connections to maintain that are hard to keep up with — and they’re important to people. It’s real easy for a parent to e-mail, and that’s important and I want them to do that, but it’s also hard to keep up with … If somebody is having a rough go in class, or if they’ve had a great day, there’s nothing like a phone call and a voice on the other end saying, “Hey I want to talk to you about what’s going on.” … When there’s a phone call, you always know you and the parents are understanding each other, or if there’s a misunderstanding and you can correct it right away and move on. But e-mail is just black and white, you don’t always know how it comes across … I struggle sometimes, I don’t ever want to become so old school that I can’t move on with time, but at the same time there’s nothing like a phone call.

The Brown v. the Board of Education decision took place 54 years ago — based on your time in the Columbia Public School System, how would you describe the relationships between different racial or ethnic groups?

When you look at it maybe on a societal level there are mysteries for all of us that we don’t understand … we have groups of kids upstairs who sit in the halls and sometimes there’s a cluster of a single ethnic or racial group, but if you look a little farther you just see crowds of friends all over the halls … I look at that and think how many of our kids group themselves by some common denominator, whether it’s wrestling, band or kids who are in drama. I’ve noticed that kids just hang together based on interests … the word diversity has always bothered me a little bit because I feel like it comes in the same word as divide … I really wish instead that we would focus on the word unity. When I look at someone who is different, if I focus on what is different it never draws me to them, but if I look at a kid and think he got up this morning with the same hopes that I did – hope to have a good day – that draws me to that person … we all come from a common background and I just like the word unity instead of diversity.

What made you want to be a teacher, and what has kept you teaching throughout these 33 years?

I think when I started out, I loved math and school life, and I really enjoyed being around people. The first couple of months that I taught, I was 21, barely 22, and oh goodness I know those first months I thought I cannot do this … But the more I got into it, the more fascinated I was with how people learn and grow … being a part of kids’ growth just in every way — physically, spiritually, academically, socially, to watch them learn from each other and try things—I think that’s been huge.

What are yours plans for after retirement?

There’s something in me that still wants to know what else is out there, this is my year to retire and every now and then I get this thought like, “What have you just done!” And yet there’s something else in me that still wants to know what’s out there happening that I would like to see … my mom always says it’s best to leave a party while you’re still having fun, and I think I can still hang around in some role … I don’t see myself taking a big step away, just kind a shift in gears and reset. I’m young enough to learn something new and maybe have the best of both worlds