TEACHER'S CORNER: FRANKLIN TEACHER SEES SUCCESS THROUGH READING RECOVERY

Reading Recovery, a program for first-grade students who are slipping behind in reading skills, keeps Lisa Hardesty enthusiastic about teaching reading.

She has been a remedial reading teacher for eight years and has taught Reading Recovery for the past four years at Franklin Elementary School.

"Reading Recovery has been the most effective early intervention program I've seen for the at-risk child," she said. "It not only teaches children to be successful in reading but also helps them feel good about themselves and willing to take risks in other situations."

Hardesty said children make noticeable progress in a matter of weeks, which makes teaching Reading Recovery challenging and rewarding.

"Sometimes the child will look at me in such amazement and say, `Look, Mrs. Hardesty, I really read that'" or `Hey, I really can read.'"

Comments like that keep her enthusiastic about teaching reading.

Hardesty has been enthusiastic about teaching since she was a student. She attended Franklin Elementary School.

After school she went home to teach her dolls and stuffed animals. As she grew, she played school with her friends. "We would always disagree over whose turn it was to be the teacher," she said.

Hardesty earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Southeast Missouri State University and completed her Reading Recovery training at Southeast.

She and her husband, Steve, have two children, Clayton, 4, and Allie, 2. She enjoys reading, swimming, softball, shopping, and arts-and-crafts shows.

"I guess what made me decide to become a teacher was a combination of all the positive experience I had as a child and my eagerness and willingness to help others," Hardesty said.