By Sigrid Olson
Pathfinder 

Gold star for Potomac teacher

 

January 31, 2019

Photo provided

Potomac School first grade teacher Terri Klein received the Gold Star Award for December 2018. She is seen here accepting her plaque from Potomac School board chair Cliff Vann.

POTOMAC - Terri Klein, the first grade teacher at Potomac School, was awarded the Gold Star Award for December 2018. KECI has sponsored the award for 27 years. It recognizes excellence in education.

Klein said she has never wanted to be anything but a first grade teacher. She grew up and went to school in Drummond. Her first grade teacher was Julie Enman. Klein stayed in touch with her through the years. "It was so fun to be able to visit her and talk education."

Klein's high school teacher John Corwin also played a part guiding Klein towards her goal. "He helped me prepare for college," Klein said.

She attended college in Billings at what was then Eastern Montana College. She graduated in 1982 with a Bachelors degree in Education and Early Childhood. She student taught in Billings for a kindergarten class as well as a first and second grade combined class.

Her college roommates had joked with her that all she ever did was cut and glue and color, she said while laughing.

During the year after college, Klein did not find a first grade teaching job right away. "I had interviews, but I was always second choice because I didn't have any experience. I persisted until I got a job."

In the spring of 1983 she began her teaching career in Stanford, Mont. where she taught first grade for eight years. In 1991 she began teaching at Potomac School and 27 years later she is still there. "I don't do the same thing [teaching] every year," she said. Although there is some continuity, her class structure and projects always have variety.

Klein loves to teach, she loves the students and how they want to know everything. "They are like sponges," she said. "I love the joy kids have when they come to school."

Klein's main goal is to teach her students to read. She loves to read "The Boxcar Children" and the "Trolley Car Family" books to her classes. Each year she also reads a Flat Stanley book and the students do a project on it by sending 'Flat Stanleys' out of town and sometimes out of state. In the book, Flat Stanley is mailed away because he is two dimensional.

During the winter she teaches about penguins because "penguins are always fun," she said.

Klein works on phonograms and vocabulary development while teaching her students to read. She said it can be challenging to bring the class to a certain reading level depending on their previous reading experience.

Klein is also concerned about technology and how it may be impacting students' brain development and how they process information. "I worry that kids are not reading books and writing with pen and paper or playing board games," she said.

Klein was nominated for the Gold Star Award by a fellow staff member and was in class when school principal John Rouse came into her classroom.

"He walked right in while I was teaching and told me I won the award," Klein said.

Klein said she was very humbled because there were so many kind things said to her by family and friends, community members and past students.

"My daughter posted it online and thinks it was well deserved," said Klein. "They know how much time away [from home] I spend here [at Potomac School]."

After a school lunchtime assembly recognizing Klein, she returned back to her classroom to find it had been decorated with gold stars and gold whirly gigs.

"It is very nice to be appreciated," she said.

Klein added it is definitely an honor to receive the award. "Accepting praise is hard. Our school is blessed with so many great teachers."

Past Potomac School Gold Star recipients include teachers Linda Hicks in 2001 and Kristina Davis in 2015.

Klein added, "Potomac School has helped me be a better teacher...part of the award is being [a part of] Potomac School."

 

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