TEACHER'S CORNER: MEET WILMA KINCY, WHO TEACHES JUNIOR STUDENTS AT PATTON

Don't be surprised if a lot of Wilma Kincy's students become teachers.

Many of them are getting a head start in considering the profession while in Kincy's classes at Meadow Heights Junior Senior High School at Patton.

"Whenever a student has demonstrated comprehension of the objectives," Kincy said, "that student becomes a teacher."

So Kincy and the student, or students, mill around the classroom assisting those who are still struggling with the objective.

Kincy teaches English and literature to seventh, eighth and ninth grade students. She has taught at Meadow Heights for three years.

She earned a bachelor of science degree in English and literature from Southeast Missouri State University in 1987 where she was class valedictorian, graduating with a 4.0 grade point average. She has nine hours toward a masters degree.

What motivated Kincy to become a teacher?

"I love children," she said. "I love their innocence, their ingenuity, their energy, and their inquisitiveness.

"After my own children left home, I knew that there were other children who needed me, and I needed them. So I combined my love for learning and teaching with my love of children, and I became a teacher."

She and her husband, David, live in Jackson. They have two daughters, both married, and they have three grandchildren.

What does Kincy find about her job that is gratifying?

"The children: Their laughter, their pranks, their jokes, their intensity with life; their ability to break something down be it a sentence, a paragraph, or a story and put it back together again; their responsiveness to instructions. Their elation with success and devastation with defeat. Their ability to learn."

Kincy doesn't always follow the book when she teaches.

Sometimes she utilizes the students' everyday activities in place of textbook examples.

"It gives a more personal note to whatever we are studying," she said, "and draws the student in to the discussion. Many times when the students are writing, I also write, and use my writing as an example.

"I also share with my students my personal writings I have accumulated over the years. By sharing, my students realize that I `practice what I preach.'"

Kincy also uses "academic races" to check for comprehension of the objectives by the speed and accuracy of the students' participation.

With "silent participation," her students resort to the written word instead of conversation.

"This kind of an exercise can be used to study and apply such objectives as correct use of quotation marks," Kincy said.

Her most memorable experience at school involved an irate parent.

"After listening to the false accusations of the parent," Kincy said, "I walked with the parent to my classroom doorway.

"As we were walking out, one of my students that I was tutoring on my lunch hour walked in carrying a balloon. The student handed me the balloon in front of the parent.

"The parent looked at me and said, `Oh, is it your birthday or something?'

"The student answered for me. `No. It's just because she's a nice teacher.' It was one of those moments a teacher says a `Thank you, God!"

Kincy's interests include reading, swimming, collecting old books, watching nature and people. She also enjoys writing stories, poems and songs.