TEACHER'S CORNER: STORIES ABOUND AFTER 30 YEARS OF TEACHING

Playground duty became a struggle to maintain dignity one day last year for veteran teacher Sherron Alexander. A little boy playing basketball accidentally stepped on her foot.

"It hurt so badly that I had to sit on the playground to alleviate the pain," Alexander recalled.

About 200 students gathered around as she tried to fight back tears. Seated on the blacktop in a decidedly undignified manner, she watched her ankle swell through torn nylons and argued with her principal and fellow teachers who wanted to carry her to the building.

"Oh, the stories that went home that day," she said.

Stories are part of what makes teaching enjoyable for Alexander.

"I often tell parents, `I won't believe everything your child tells me about you if you won't believe everything he tells you about me,'" she said.

Alexander teaches third grade at Orchard Drive Elementary in Jackson. She has taught 30 years, 25 of those years at Jackson schools.

Her husband, Howard, is business manager for the Jackson school district. Her son, Todd, is pursuing a nursing career.

She is a volunteer at St. Francis Medical Center, a hospice volunteer at Southeast Missouri Hospital and she enjoys square dancing. She's a member of the Orchard Drive team for alcohol and substance abuse prevention and a member of New McKendree United Methodist Church.

"I can never remember a time when I didn't want to be a teacher," she said. "As a little girl, I played school with my cousins. Of course, I was always the teacher."

Watching children grow up, graduate, marry and succeed is the best part of teaching, Alexander said.

She has been at the job long enough to teach several second-generation students.

Alexander said this year has been special because it will be her last in the classroom. She plans to retire.

"I know that everything I do this year will be for the last time," she said. "I'm so grateful to all the students I've had. They've provided me with a scrapbook of memories to last a lifetime."