TEACHER PLAYED SCHOOL LONG BEFORE GOING IN FRONT OF CLASS

NEW HAMBURG -- Crystal Koch became a classroom teacher three years ago, but she actually started her career many years earlier.

Koch, a first-grade teacher at Kelso C-7 School, played school with her stuffed animals as a child. She said she also spent a lot of time "being the mother at family functions with her younger sister and numerous cousins."

"I have always wanted to be a teacher because I had a wonderful experience as a child in school," she said. "I looked up to all my teachers and admired everything they did."

Teaching students to read provides real pleasure for Koch. She also enjoys teaching complex concepts, which can be exciting and humorous all at once.

Take, for example, the first day of her first year in a classroom. The first-graders began asking at 9 a.m. when lunch would be served. Time was something best taught in television show lengths, and many of the children felt "they would never be able to wait four Magic School Bus shows," Koch said. They also were surprised to learn first grade marked the end of the rituals they were familiar with.

"It took a week or two to realize that we do not have snacks or naps," she said. "First-graders are a lot of fun."

Koch tries to encourage good manners and behavior in her students by offering "Koch Cash." To earn Koch Cash, students must help a friend, make good grades, follow directions or perform other good acts. They can spend their "money" on prizes of different values or they can save it.

"It's neat to see how they spend it at first, but then realize if they save it they can buy bigger and better things," she said.

Koch is engaged to Charles Richey. In her free time, she likes to sew quilts and complete scrap books. She also enjoys spending time with family, going to church and watching movies.