TEACHER'S CORNER: BENTON TEACHER ENJOYS PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT

BENTON -- Christy Withers set the mood to read Halloween stories with her third- and fourth-grade students by closing the door and turning the lights off.

Teacher and pupils were deep in a story about ghosts and goblins when suddenly came a knock on the door. "We all screamed because we were scared," Withers said.

Being involved with students on a personal basis, even when it means sharing a fright, is a benefit of working at a small school, Withers said.

She teaches third and fourth grades at St. Denis School in Benton.

"I have a small class of 16 students, seven fourth graders and nine third graders, which allows me to work in small groups and to be able to work one-on-one with each child."

The small class also allows time for special projects, she said. For example, her fourth-grade students are raising tadpoles in the classroom. At the end of the year the students plan to take home a frog.

Each week a different student is a Star Student. That child does extra jobs in the classroom and enjoys a little extra attention.

"I became a teacher because I love being around children and I love watching them grow and learn," Withers said. "I feel the most gratifying part of teaching is watching a child who is having difficulty with a subject see the light come on and be able to figure out the solution to the problem all by himself."

Withers said joy comes "when an eighth-grader expresses an experience that he most remembers in his years at school, and that experience was something that happened in my class five years ago in third grade."

Withers has been teaching 11 years. She is a 1977 graduate of Notre Dame High School and a 1982 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor's degree in education.

She is married to Greg Withers and has a 21-month-old daughter named Abby.

In her spare time she enjoys making craft items like sweatshirts and hair bows for her daughter and decorating baskets and making wreaths.