TEACHER FEATURE: FIRST-YEAR TEACHER OFFERS HANDS-ON WORK FOR STUDENTS

After just six hours in a classroom filled with kindergartners, Cheryl Hendershott had an unforgettable experience. Hendershott teaches at Franklin Elementary School.

Students had been learning the daily routines, classroom rules, how to get lunch and where to line up after recess when they finally had time for hands-on activities.

"I had a student ask, `Mrs. Hendershott, I thought we were going to do work at school?' I smiled and thought to myself, `You have done lots of work today already.'"

Hendershott then had to explain that not all the work would be done with pencil and paper.

"We will do more hands-on learning such as counting blocks, keys and beans, and sorting buttons by sizes, patterns and colors," she said.

Hendershott is a first-year teacher at the school, but she is familiar with Cape Girardeau schools. She worked as a teacher's aide in the first-grade classes last year and was a part-time aide at Alma Schrader during 1994-95. She graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1994.

Hendershott met her husband while in college. The couple, which married in June, attend Cape Bible Chapel.

A teaching career has always been a priority for Hendershott. "I never had a doubt that teaching was the road for me," she said. "God gave me a big heart for children and a great deal of patience to work with them. More than anything in my teaching profession, what I find most gratifying is seeing children change the statement `I can't.' into the statement `I can.'"

Hendershott is a member of the National Science Teachers Association, Missouri State Teachers Association and Community Teachers Association.