TEACHER'S CORNER: MOTIVATING STUDENTS BEHIND TEACHING STYLE VARIETY

For Sue Rees, variety truly is the spice of life.

Rees, a teacher at Nell Holcomb School District, demonstrates her love for variety in the style and students she teaches. Even the way in which she became a teacher is different from her coworkers.

"I volunteered as a Project Charlie coordinator and enjoyed that experience so much I enrolled in college to pursue a teaching career," she said. "I completed my bachelor's degree, as a single mom, in three years."

Rees must constantly alter her teaching style because she teaches students with learning disabilities and also those in the gifted program. Despite their educational differences, Rees said she believes her students are similar in many ways.

"It's finding what motivates a student that helps them to be successful," she said. "For some students, it is a promise of me standing on my head that encourages them to study for and pass a test. For others, it may be computer time or just a piece of candy."

Passersby should beware when nearing Rees' classroom. There may be a roomful of students making decorations to take to the Missouri Veteran's Home for a holiday, or butterflies flying around the classroom during the butterfly-raising activities. Classes also have had an ant farm and even frogs, she said.

Besides her classroom duties, Rees also works as a school bus driver and Student Council sponsor. Away from school, she is married and has two daughters and three stepsons.

She enjoys running 25 to 30 miles each week and completed a HI-TEC Adventure Racing Challenge along with her husband last summer in Dallas, Texas. The race included a nine-mile run, 15-mile bike ride, 2 miles in a kayak, and half-mile swim. The race also included such obstacles as a mud pit to swim through, a Crisco wall to clim and a cargo net to climb. Rees and her husband completed the race in three hours and seven minutes.