TEACHER'S CORNER: PARENTS HAVE LOT TO LIKE IN REIMANN'S CLASS

The students in Shirley Reimann's second-grade class made a likeness of themselves for open house this year.

FRUITLAND -- When parents enter Shirley Reimann's classroom they are surprised to see so many well-behaved students. Until they realize the students are just paper-likenesses of the real thing.

Reimann teaches second grade at North Elementary School.

Each year for the school's P.T.O. Night, her students make a paper-likeness of themselves to place at their desks.

"Parents (many of whom are former students) love to look at my classroom," Reimann said. "And the students feel so proud of their room. I usually have a large turnout of parents because their children really stress the importance of coming to school on P.T.O. night to see their likeness."

Reimann, who has been teaching for 28 years in the Jackson district, has even seen her own likeness in the classroom.

She taught all three of the children as they entered second grade at Pocahontas.

"They didn't know whether to call me `Mom' or `Mrs. Reimann' at school," she said, adding that she considers North Elementary her home.

"Teaching grows more beautiful as I look back on my years in the classroom," Reimann said. "It's overwhelming to think about how many lives I have touched. When one is a teacher, one does a little of everything; laugh, cry, act, write and sing. The list is endless. Sometimes I feel I have been mother, grandmother, doctor, nurse and lawyer to so many lives. I hope I have left a good imprint."

Reimann's first job certainly left an imprint with her.

After only two years of college, she started teaching at a rural school near Hannibal. She taught during the school year and attended classes at Hannibal-LeGrange College in the summer.

"My first school was a rural, one-room school with 11 students in all eight grades," she said. "I was concerned about students at different grade levels being in one class together and how it might affect their learning. But the county superintendent said they `would learn from each other' and that they did. We became a close-knit group."

"When we had P.T.A. meetings, the parents came and helped, with all of us working together to give the children the best we could offer at the time," Reimann added. "I will always remember my first year of teaching there as the families accepted me and cared for me as if I were one of their own."

Reimann and her husband, Carl, have three children and three grandchildren.