TEACHER'S CORNER: TEACHER SHIFTS GEARS TO KEEP STUDENTS INTERESTED

McCLURE, Ill. -- Much like a racing car shifts gears to gain speed, Vicki Reynolds changes subjects about every 30 minutes to keep her first-grade students at Shawnee Elementary South revved up about learning.

"Seeing a child as he progresses during the year and learns how to read is a great experience," Reynolds said. "It makes you feel that maybe you do make a difference in a lot of little lives."

During her 13 years of teaching, Reynolds has likely touched thousands of lives. She has been teaching first grade for 11 years.

Reynolds spends about seven hours a day with the students and tries to make schoolwork more than a chore.

"Childhood is such a special time," she said. "I want children in my class to enjoy themselves."

Much of that enjoyment comes from games, humor and laughter.

We laugh a lot in our classroom," she said. "You never really know what a child will say."

And Reynolds never really knows when her day will go as planned.

"Working with small children can be very challenging," she said. "Their activities need to be changed every 15 to 30 minutes so I have to stay very busy all day."

Staying busy isn't difficult because Reynolds not only teaches but offers extra help for difficult problems.

"Younger children also have extra problems to deal with like runny noses, fastening clothes and losing teeth," Reynolds said, adding that she thinks a lot like a mother. "Usually first-graders love their teacher like a second Mom. Sometimes I feel as protective as the Mom."

Reynolds and her husband, Rodney, have been married 22 years and have three teen-age children.

Reynolds is a graduate of Shawnee High School in Wolf Lake, Ill., and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.