TEACHER'S CORNER: GREAT-AUNT HELPED INFLUENCE TERESA WILLAIMS' CAREER CHOICE

Education is a much-loved way of life for elementary school teacher Teresa Williams. The 12-year teaching veteran is in her first year as a second-grade teacher at Charles C. Clippard Elementary School. She was influenced to enter the profession by close relatives, and her husband works as a teacher and coach in the Cape Girardeau public school system.

"My desire to be a teacher came mainly from my great-aunt, who taught for 47 years in the Missouri Bootheel," said the mother of three. "She was also an influence on my mother, who is teaching in her 27th year at Hearnes Elementary School in Charleston."

Besides the family ties to education, Williams also spends her private time in education-related activities. She is an active member of the local Community Teachers Association, Missouri State Teachers Association, and Parent Teachers Association at Alma Schrader Elementary School. She also is involved in the preschool department and Awana's Club at Lynwood Baptist Church.

Williams said her main reason for becoming a teacher was her desire to help mold the lives of young children. Even so, she said, she didn't fully understand the importance of a teacher in a child's life until she talked to former student Dee Manson, whom she taught in Desloge nearly 11 years ago,

Manson was a very caring, loving, quiet student who became a favorite, Williams said. "She sent me an invitation to her induction into the National Honor Society at North County High School," Williams said. "In her letter, she told me that she had been asked to name the teacher that had most influenced her life and she chose me -- her first-grade teacher. This touched me and reinforced my desire to teach our youngsters."