DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) - After spending almost 42 years in education, Maureen Elwyn says she’s far from finished and feels blessed to be doing a job she enjoys so much.
“This is the most challenging but most exciting time to be in education. There are so many great ideas, so many wonderful things that teachers are doing in classrooms,” Elwyn said. “I’ve stayed because I love it. I work because I enjoy what I’m doing and I feel like I’m doing important work.”
Elwyn is the curriculum coordinator for Boyle County Schools. She spends about half of her time at Perryville Elementary School working as the instructional leader and the rest of the time rotating between schools. Considering her tenure with the Boyle schools began at Perryville Elementary School 30 years ago, Elwyn thinks it’s fitting.
A native of Springfield and a graduate of Murray State University, Elwyn taught three and a half years in Illinois before moving back to Kentucky.
“My husband and I took a spring break, printed resumes, came back to this area, just traveled and went from school to school to school. Of all the systems that we visited, we liked Boyle County the best,” she said.
Both were secondary certified English teachers and, luckily, there were positions open. Her husband, Paul, went to work at the high school, teaching English and journalism classes, while she was placed at Perryville Elementary to teach seventh- and eighth-grade language arts.
“I now teach the children of former students - that makes it neat,” she said.
After Perryville, Elwyn moved to Boyle County Middle School when it opened. She retired from the classroom and became a writing specialist in the district, then added curriculum and intervention work before becoming the district’s curriculum coordinator in 2013.
Elwyn said she never wanted to be a teacher when she was growing up. Instead, she wanted to be a musician. While she never followed that path, Elwyn does sing in the choir at Lexington Avenue Baptist Church.
Her other major passion is writing.
“My mother died in December. She was 90, and she was a wonderful storyteller. I grew up hearing these stories … all those wonderful stories about the people in the family,” Elwyn said.
So, with her passion for writing and her memory of her mother, Elwyn created a blog to share those stories with her daughter, nieces and nephews. “Those stories need to go on,” she said.
It was her mother who encouraged Elwyn to pursue a career in teaching.
“I found out once I did my student teaching and started teaching that it fit,” she said.
Elwyn said she always loved reading and all aspects of English, including grammar.
“I can be teaching poetry one day and tell you ’I love poetry, it’s my favorite thing’ and the next day if I’m teaching drama, go, ’I love drama, it’s my favorite thing,” she said laughing.
Part of what makes education so exciting, Elwyn said, is the impact it has on the children. When she began, it was a different field.
“When I first started teaching … they pretty much told you that some kids are going to get A’s, some kids are going to get B’s … you had your haves and your have nots,” she said.
“I taught the lesson, I gave the test, you got the grade, we moved on.”
“We don’t believe that in education any more. Every child can learn.”
That’s part of the Boyle County Blueprint, which Elwyn helped put together, that operates as a plan for the district.
It emphasizes collaboration, which is a large aspect of her role as district curriculum coordinator.
Elwyn helps with grant writing and reviews Measures of Academic Progress testing scores for students. She also helps teachers know what to teach and how to teach it. Together, she said, they figure out what works and what doesn’t.
“I welcome opportunities to get into the classroom and teach. I still enjoy it,” Elwyn said.
She uses her love of writing to help students learn. Before teaching any writing lessons, such as short stories, Elwyn writes it out, showing students samples and demonstrating if she can do it, so can they.
“It’s good for the children to see me as a writer. To see that ordinary people write. It says, ’hey, I did this, you can do it and I can help you,’” she said.
“It’s hard to explain, but there’s just this feeling that you get when you’re in front of that group of kids and you’re explaining something new and something different and you see that look in their eye that says they get it.”
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Information from: The (Danville, Ky.) Advocate-Messenger, https://www.centralkynews.com/amnews
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