TEACHER'S CORNER: LEOPOLD TEACHER LIKES TO MIX EDUCATION AND FAMILY VALUES

LEOPOLD -- Leopold High School teacher Teresa Cooper likes the combination of education and family values.

Whether she's encouraging her students to record their personal family history or following her own children at various educational events, Cooper said families should be high priorities.

"I often tell my students how my grandmother died just before her 99th birthday, and how I missed a wealth of stories and history," said the nine-year teaching veteran. "We have a special project that covers basic writing skills and grammar, but at the same time gives students a chance to learn their family history. Students, as well as myself, learn so much about each other and the community before we end this assignment."

She said her job can be very frustrating some days. Increasing loads of paperwork and demands to help students improve their performance can cause some teachers to lose sight of their reward, she said.

"There are days when one feels overwhelmed by it all, but teaching can be incredibly rewarding," she said. "It is difficult to describe the feeling that comes from seeing the "recognition" or "dawning" in a child's eyes after a difficult concept is mastered."

Cooper didn't decide to become a teacher until her first year of college, although she had marked it as a career possibility several years earlier.

"I was privileged to have had several teachers that I held in high regard because they inspired me to reach for goals and to attain them," she said. "I wanted to have this effect on other people."

Cooper and her husband, Tony, have three children, Kaci, 13, Cory, 8 and Cord, 2. Her hobbies include fishing with her husband, attending her children's activities, crafts and oil painting.