TEACHER'S CORNER: WORKING WITH STUDENTS IS REWARDING FOR FIRST-GRADE TEACHER OF 24 YEARS

Teaching first grade for 15 years has given Kathy Summers lots of experience with lost teeth. In fact, she is sort of the resident expert at the Gordonville Attendance Center on losing baby teeth.

But this year she experienced a first: A group of her students were drawing pictures to illustrate a poem about a lost tooth, when one of the youngsters actually lost a tooth. Not long afterwards, a second child lost a tooth, and soon afterwards a third child lost a tooth.

"How's that for feedback?" Summers said.

The Gordonville Attendance Center is part of Jackson public schools. The center has about 75 students in grades one through three.

"My school is paradise," Summers said. "I often refer to it as the Little School on the Prairie."

She believes her students are lucky to be educated in a small setting during the early years of school.

Summers believes in variety in her classroom. For example, she teaches her students about the different stages of development -- larvae, pupae, etc. -- by holding mealworm races. The children are divided into teams and given a mealworm to "raise." The team whose worm turns into a little brown bug first wins.

"I have to remind them that it won't turn into a beautiful butterfly," Summers said.

At least once a year students have a chance to puppysit. "I bring a litter of puppies to school and the children take turns caring for the puppies," she said.

Children are assigned duties during recess and storytime to make sure the puppies are cared for.

"It's a fun thing and kids really enjoy it," Summer said. "It's little things that spark interest in children."

She said working with first-graders is rewarding because they are so eager to learn.

Summers has been a teacher at Gordonville for 24 years, long enough to teach the children of former students.

She is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University. Her husband, Bob, is also a teacher. They have two children, Trent, a sophomore at Notre Dame High School, and Suzanne, a seventh-grader at Immaculate Conception School in Jackson.

She enjoys bird watching and gardening in her spare time.