TEACHER'S CORNER: ANDERSON ENJOYS TEACHING AT KELLY MIDDLE SCHOOL

BENTON -- Tom Anderson has heard a lot of excuses why his junior high students don't have their math homework. But the best was a young lady who told him her dog ate the math book.

"I said, `I'm sure the dog ate your book,' sarcastically," Anderson recalled. "As the words were coming out of my mouth, she pulled from her bookbag a mutilated eighth-grade math book with less than half of it remaining."

Moral of the story, Anderson said, "Junior high kids are very honest. Don't ask for the truth unless you want to hear it."

Anderson teaches seventh and eighth grade math at Kelly Middle School at Benton.

He enjoys working with junior high students.

"The part that is most gratifying about my job is the satisfaction I feel when I take beginning junior high students who have many questions about themselves and their abilities and see them develop into confident young teenagers ready to face the challenges of high school," Anderson said.

"Being a junior high teacher requires more than just teaching the subject matter. I requires one to help the students become organized and to develop good study habits as well as help the student develop a good self image so that they can one day reach their potential."

Anderson has worked in education 24 years; 14 years as a math teacher and 10 years as an administrator.

He worked four years as principal at Kelly school and six years as principal at Scott City School.

Anderson is now back in the classroom.

"I decided to become a teacher because I enjoyed learning mathematics and felt I could help others understand and enjoy it as I have," he said.

Practice, practice, practice is the key to success, Anderson said. In his class, students are assigned daily homework assignment. Students sometimes work individuals but often work in small groups.

"As students are working on class assignments, students can ask persons within their small group for help or they may seek help from me," he explained.

Once a week, each small group is given a set of problems that must be solved as a group project. Each person is also given an individual problem they must solve.

"This process requires them to work together and to communicate to solve the group problem and also to help each other understand so that each member can then solve their individual problem," Anderson said.

Anderson earned his bachelors, masters and specialist degrees from Southeast Missouri State University.

He has been married 23 years to Donna Gosche, a home economics teacher at Kelly. They have three children, Eric, 21, Brent, 19 and Keith, 13.

He serves on the Scott City Board of Education, the Scott City Planning and Zoning committee, and the Scott City Board of Adjustment. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, CTA, MSTA and the National Council of Mathematics Teachers.