By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Jan Burkholder is still putting children first after 41 years of teaching in the Hays USD 489 school district.
Burkholder, a second-grade teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School, has been selected as the October Hays Post Teacher of the Month.
Burkholder was nominated by her son, Joshua Burkholder. Joshua's son is in Jan's class this school year.
"She continues to put the children in her class first, sacrificing her time to make sure they are getting the best learning experience possible in this time," he said.
"She continues to come back year after year in order to make sure the students who would be in her classes have the best learning experience possible.
"She has seen generations of students come and go and continues to teach in a way that makes the kids feel loved and valued as a person."
Although Jan, 65, has not made it official, she said she will likely retire at the end of this school year — another reason Joshua said he nominated his mom for the award.
"I guess I don't really think about what I do each day," she said. "It is my job. I come to school each day, do things to the best of my ability and just shower those kids with love. ...
"It is just my job to help every child every day."
Burkholder grew up in Natoma, where she said her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Tucker, was an early inspiration for her to become a teacher.
"She was that model I would like to be," Burkholder said. "She gave us lots and lots of love. She made learning fun. I just wanted to be with her all day long."
She said she always loved being with kids. She babysat and helped with Sunday school when she was a teenager.
She graduated from Fort Hays State University with a degree in elementary education and later returned to earn a master's degree in elementary counseling.
However, she said she much prefers her work in the classroom and chose to apply the skills she learned in grad school in the classroom setting.
Burkholder did her student teaching at Roosevelt and was lucky to land a job right out of college at the same school teaching first grade.
Burkholder eventually moved to second grade. She spent one year doing looping with a second grade class into third grade. She said she has fond memories of spending two years with those students.
She said she has always enjoyed teaching younger students.
"Especially with the primary students, they look up to the teacher. They still respect the teacher," she said. "They are so anxious to learn, and they come to school every day ready to learn something new.
"They are kind of like my little sponges. Everything that I give to them they just absorb. It is just fun to watch them grow. They gain so much ground as a primary student."
Second graders are more independent than the kindergarteners, so Burkholder said she has the best of both worlds, children who are more independent, but still love to learn.
She said she loves that each day is different.
"I can never depend on every day being exactly the same or maybe even being what I planned on it to be," she said. "Each day is different for me with new experiences, new pleasures, new challenges, and I enjoy that."
When Burkholder considers her teaching philosophy, she likes to go back to the district goal — providing the best quality education for each one of the students every day that they are in school.
When schools shut down in the spring because of COVID-19, Burkholder said she faced the toughest challenge she has as a teacher.
Teaching through Zoom was not the same as being on site, she said.
"The kids are so excited about being back in the classroom, and teachers love being back in the classroom too. We did the best we could," she said.
The district's decision to move to one-to-one technology for students saved the district last spring when students had to learn remotely, she said.
However, Burkholder said she thought students really need the social contact they get in the classroom. She said her classes were set up for 30-minute Zoom session in the spring, but they often went more than an hour because the kids needed the opportunity to interact with each other.
Burkholder said she has many good memories of her students, but also of the staff with whom she has worked.
She chuckled as she remembered the time the Roosevelt principal got his tie stuck in the laminator and he had to cut it off.
"I am humbled to have this recognition, but it is not an individual accomplishment," she said. "The Roosevelt staff is so loving, so caring, so kind, plus we just like to have to have fun with each other. ...
"We have always been a school that is bonded as family as well as lovin' on those kids."
After four decades as a teacher, Burkholder said she has seen everything. She said teaching methods tend to cycle over the years.
When she first started teaching, the emphasis was on individual instruction. Then the shift went to whole language, with a greater emphasis on the group. In some ways the shift has been back to a whole group experience also with some guided reading.
"I think it takes a little bit of all different methods to make it work," she said.
Technology has changed, families may have changed, but Burkholder said kids are still kids and they are still learners.
Burkholder said she has always loved teaching reading. She shared one of her favorite books with the children this week, "The Ghost Eye Tree" by Bill Martin. She also enjoys reading "Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder to the children, annually in January.
She also loves offering hands-on science lessons to her students like the Can You Make Your Boat Float Challenge. The students create small boats and then compete against each other to see which boat can hold the most pennies.
Burkholder has been a mentor for many student teachers. As her student teacher from the spring started her first year of teaching kindergarten this year, Burkholder encouraged her to make her classroom her own.
"The best thing I told her going out was use the model you have from me. Use the strategies that you saw me teaching," she said, "but still make it your classroom. Make it fit you and your personality and the students and make it the best teaching experience for them each day."
Burkholder said she hopes to do some traveling with her husband in her retirement.