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Show Sunday. January 31. 1982. THE HERALD, Provo. Teacher of Year Bunch Incredible ; age 27 ecere Your Tomorrows rm With avinigs jioaay This is about super teachers. In everyone's life there is a special one say one in the lower grades who taught a budding chairman of the board how to conquer impatience. Perhaps it was a teacher in junior high who taught a "me first" kid how to share. Maybe it was in high school that a teacher made an indelible mark on a life by helping to untangle wires that criss and cross and get all mixed up inside adolescents. The teachers in this report are impressing and molding contemporary kids. They face the firing line every time they step into a classroom. Each has been dubbed Teacher of the Year 1982 in his or her respective state and nominated for National Teacher of the Year honors a competition sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers, Encyclopedia Britannica and Good Housekeeping. Reading through the biographies, philosophies and other materials submitted with each nomination, one gets the impression they're an incredible bunch. Song restores order There's one, for example, who restores class to order by breaking out in song. "When the class gets too bubbly," this first grade teacher said, she sings to get attention, preferring that to raising her voice. In another school , a teacher on crutches tells about bad luck with polio. She does it the first time d she and students meet. Then, she in- . Utah-P- Of"" is;-- ,' TV pint-size- troduces her "good friends and constant companions;" "Peter" and "Paul;" the crutches. There's a music man who used to play in Sammy ' Kaye's big band. He's got music coming out doors and windows of the schoolhouse. He's got grownups tootling flutes and blowing horns in a Moms' and Pops' band. Jane Kamletz, who has been singing her class to ; order in Washington Grade School, Jamestown, N.D., included this note from a student: "Dear Mrs. Kamletz: ; "I liked first grade, because you were nice very ; nice and you had so many game's to play..." Punctuation errors, not perfect word use, but a ; heartbeat is there. Second grade is time enough to ; perfect punctuation and such. "From my first year of teaching and every year ; since I have had the same prayer," Mrs. Kamletz says, "help me not to fail the children." The song she sings is one she made up. The ; children are expected to sing back parts. 'Peter and Paul' Third grade in a Pocatello, Idaho, school is base for Laurie Ann Coffey Jones, a former nun and the teacher on crutches. "I believe in honesty and openness," she writes in her biography. "So I begin the first day by telling my children that I had polio. " "They see that I walk with braces and crutches. I ; tell them I've named my crutches Peter and Paul and how they are always with me and are my best I friends. "I show them how polio has weakened my hand ; muscles and, consequently, I hold my pencil , awkwardly. They all try it. "I'm amazed at how willingly and lovingly . children accept my limitations." A former pupil, now a sixth grader, wrote: "When I was in 3rd grade Mrs. Jones would always teach our class poems and songs. She made , learning a lot of fun. She always had a smile on her face and still does." Teachers in the running for the Teacher of the ; Year title teach the gamut of public instruction. There are art, music, science, language, math, primary, secondary, junior high and phys ed instructors. There are coaches, music directors and school paper advisers. One oversees a school rodeo. - " W '&J$ : - ' ; Their dedication There are teachers who spend their time on programs for the gifted; others, on education for the handicapped. Some of these duties are in the job to acdescription. Often the time spent is extra company students on the extra steps they need. Many do church work. Some have been to the White House. Some have taken student performing groups overseas. They have in common dedication to teaching and super energy. Otherwise, it is plain, they couldn't do all they do, serving school, community, students. The days of their lives are a mosaic of meetings, workshops, updating their professional know-hosymposiums. They laugh with their charges and cry with them, j What mainly comes through is that they care ' deeply about their work. Mrs. Beth Johnson, of Kathleen Senior High in ' Lakeland, Fla., an English and Latin teacher, pas"Do I Owe A ses along the heartbeat in her poem Care?" An excerpt: "Do I owe a care? "You better believe it, my dear! "I owe a smile to a saddened face, smudged and , stained with tears. "I owe a! pleasant thought to a mind, all weary ; and blurred with frustration and anger. "I owe a little faith to untrusting hearts, needing patience and understanding. "I owe uplifting encouragement to vulnerable spirits, who wander across my path. "Most of all, I owe a little love to the child who has been entrusted to my care." Why they teach There is nothing cookie-cutte- r about the way the super teachers got into teaching. Some were turned . on by parents who were teachers. Some were in-- ; spired by a teacher. Some said they just always wanted to be a teacher. Others got there by a circuitous route. Take Tom Wagner, the music man at Stewart Elementary School in Garden City, N.Y. During high school he played with dance bands all ' but one night a week. He dropped out of school and made his living at music. By age 19 he'had played on a Jack Bennv program. Drafted in World War II, he was assigned to the Army band. Mustered out in 1946, he went on to the Sammy Kaye orchestra. He took a high school ' equivalencv exam later. Then he went to college. "I feel I'm teaching something that is good and , right for children, Wagner writes. 99 percent "Music must be 100 percent correct ; is not good, r or this reason, all rehearsals are ned carefully. wmmmiL mm r i '.v, -- -- . ' Security for the future takes careful financial planning. The expert savings counselors at U.S. Thrift & Loan realixe this. They are carefully trained in giving sound financial advice no matter what your financial status just starting out or a sophisticated investor. U.S. Thrift & Loan has a variety of savings packages designed to fit almost any type of investor. From the regular passbook savings which pays 8 annual interest with no minimum deposit to the Vk year certificate of annual interest with $100 deposit which pays 15 minimum, U.S. Thrift & Loan's investment programs pay substantual returns with one extra benefit Security. 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