TEACHER'S CORNER: JOYCE HELDERMAN TEACHES THIRD GRADE AT DELTA ELEMENTARY

Joyce Helderman has been around children all her life. That's why she enjoys teaching third grade at Delta R-5 elementary school.

"Being the oldest of eight children," Helderman said, "I was always around `kids.' I believed that working with children would be one of the most rewarding things to do, and it is!

"Seeing a child's face light up when he or she realizes that they have just learned something is very gratifying."

Helderman is in her 23rd year of teaching, the last 22 years spent at Delta elementary school. Her first year, she taught kindergarten at Lutesville.

She received her bachelor of science degree in education from Southeast Missouri State University.

Helderman uses bulletin boards in her classroom as an incentive for her students to try harder to achieve.

"I have the children make themselves, or an object representing themselves, and we use it to compete in races or to chart their own progress," she said.

"For example, on Halloween I have a mean, ugly witch stirring a brew. She's wanting all the little `ghosts,' my students, who live in the haunted house to come down the path and join her Halloween party.

"However, she really wants them in her brew," she said.

"Children who study their reading stay in the house. Children who do poorly take a step down the path. If they continue to do poorly, they end up in the brew by Halloween.

"If their reading improves, they go back down the path to the house. Children really try to stay out of the brew."

After Helderman puts up two or three of her bulletin board ideas, the students come up with their own ideas for the next month.

"They seem to try harder when there is a fun activity they can participate in," she said.

Helderman recalls one humorous incident while she was on playground duty.

"A first grader was telling me where his parents worked, and then with all sincerity, he looked up and said, `Miss Helderman, where do you work?'

"Teaching is enjoyable, but it is work," she said.

"One of my main concerns is that so many children come to school with problems stemming from home, and we as teachers have to find a way for that child to still be open to learning."

Helderman is single and lives in rural Whitewater. Her interests include traveling in the summer, working in Bible school and church camp, reading and watching TV.