TEACHER'S CORNER: BETTY COX TEACHES FRESHMAN ENGLISH AT NOTRE DAME HIGH

Notre Dame English teacher Betty Cox utilizes a touch of the dramatic in presentations to her freshman English classes.

"I think a sense of humor is so important in dealing with students and we try to have a good time. I tend to be over dramatic from time to time just to make a point," she said. "I want them to know learning can be fun at least part of the time."

Cox began teaching at Notre Dame 14 years ago as an accounting and typing teacher. She now teaches freshman English.

"I wanted to be a teacher from the time I started to school and was often a teacher's helper," she said. "It is exciting to see the light dawn in a student's eye when a new idea is grasped.

"One of my objectives in the classroom is to help each student make a connection between the learning going on in the classroom and what is going on outside the school walls.

"One way I do this is to relate learning activities to current newspapers and magazines. I encourage them to be alert to situations outside class that can reinforce learning in the classroom," she explained.

"Already this year a couple of students have rushed into the classroom telling me they heard words from our vocabulary list used on a television show and could therefore know what was being discussed. Cartoons are interesting to most students," Cox said, "so they are good tools for teaching grammar and literary terms, such as satire, sarcasm and allusion."

She also provides projects for students like producing a radio broadcast or a television interview, videotaping original scenes, and publishing newspapers. "Students do the creating, writing, producing, and camera work while learning to work together in teams," she said.

Cox is a member of the Notre Dame Substance Abuse Prevention Team and also a member of the Cape Girardeau Drug Free Schools Advisory Board. In this capacity she helps coordinate and sponsor the Freshman Lock-in at Notre Dame each year.

The event "helps freshmen get acquainted, build self esteem and prepare themselves to make better decisions as they are faced with a variety of new situations at this time in their lives," she said.

Cox also helps coordinate Project Prom, a substance-free, all-night party sponsored by parents following the school prom.

She is a native of Mound City, Kan., and a graduate of Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan., with a bachelor's degree in business education and a minor in English.

Before coming to Notre Dame, she taught at Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School, Royster Junior High School in Chanute, Kan., and Cherryvale High School, Cherryvale, Kan., for a total of 21 years.

The Cox family moved to Cape Girardeau 28 years ago when her husband, Robert, joined the faculty of the department of industrial technology at Southeast Missouri State University. They have three grown sons, Charles, Robert Jr., and Scott; and two grandsons.

She is active in the American Cancer Society and is an honorary lifetime member of the state board of directors of the American Cancer Society. She is a member and volunteer of the Southeast Missouri Hospital Auxiliary, the Faculty Dames at Southeast, and the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Baptist Children's Home.

She and her husband are members of the Illmo Baptist Church in Scott City, where they teach a young couples Sunday School class.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, playing tennis and rooting for the Notre Dame Bulldogs, Lady Bulldogs, Southeast Indians and Otahkians.