EXCHANGE: Teacher starts, ends career with child of 1 family

MATTOON, Ill. (AP) - This is Sheri Flood’s last year as a second-grade teacher in the Mattoon school district.

Teaching second grade has a been a part of her life for approximately 28 years, and she is retiring at the end of the school year.

So, it was almost serendipitous when Flood combed down the list of students for her final second-grade class and saw 7-year-old Khloe’s name among the pile.

“That was the first thing I did was look at my little list and see if I had a Frederick in there,” she said.

She knew the family well and knew the family had one child going into second grade.

There was only one other time that she found herself teaching a second-grade Frederick. And in a unique turn of events, Flood, soon after reading that name, realized that a Frederick would be finishing out her career as another started it.

Khloe’s father, Matt Frederick, was in Flood’s first second-grade class of her career in 1988.

For both Flood and Matt, it seemed only fitting that Khloe would help finish out the teacher’s career.

“We were both excited,” Flood said. “Matthew was like my son before I had a son.”

“I was teary the first day,” Matt said. “I was emotional the first day. It was such a neat circle…God has a way of working that stuff out sometimes.”

It brings Flood back to her first time teaching second grade as she watches Khloe in the classroom.

“She has very similar mannerisms (to Matt),” Flood said.

Matt was a shy and nervous kid. He had a hard time connecting to his teachers at that point, but things changed when he hit second grade.

“For the first time, I really connected with a teacher,” Matt said. “I felt like she actually cared. She took really good care of me. I really bonded with (Flood).”

Flood connected with Matt through dinosaurs.

“I try to find things that the kids are interested in,” Flood said. “He was very into dinosaurs so I made him my dino expert.”

Now, years later with Khloe, the only big difference is that dinosaurs were traded for fashion. Flood said Khloe is the fashion expert as they discuss changing trends.

Flood said it is a strangely emotional send-off, in a way, to her time as a teacher. It makes this a great goodbye as an educator to teach the daughter of one of her first second-graders, she said.

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Source: Mattoon Journal Gazette & (Charleston) Times-Courier, http://bit.ly/2ldaHTE

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Information from: Mattoon Journal-Gazette, http://www.jg-tc.com