By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Art teacher Teresa Gross only has about an hour a week to touch the lives of her students, but she does her best to give them a place to create and grow.
Gross, Wilson and Lincoln art teacher, has been named the December Hays Post Teacher of the Month.
Wilson Principal Anita Scheve and staff in their nomination noted Gross goes above beyond inside and outside of the classroom to help students.
"For example, we had a parent call who was having trouble getting her son to cross the street on his own, and she couldn’t come with him, as she had other sick kids," Scheve said her nomination. "Mrs. Gross quickly responded and went to walk the student across the street and into the school building, beginning his day on a positive note.
"Another student forgot her flashlight, so Mrs. Gross loaned her a flashlight. When students forget costumes for class presentations, Mrs. Gross quickly acts by putting something together from her class supplies."
Scheve said the 28-year-veteran teacher tends to her students as whole children.
"Mrs. Gross guides all students to learn to love art, by helping them try their best even if they aren’t the next Van Gogh," Scheve said. ... "For example, students make worry dolls in art to help them get through tough times. All students painted kindness rocks as a commitment to be kind always. Mrs. Gross builds relationships with students and genuinely cares about them all."
Gross, a FHSU graduate, has spent all 28 years teaching in the Hays school district. She went to Victoria schools for two years and a Hays school for one year when she was a child before her family moved to Pratt.
Gross said she always knew she wanted to be a teacher.
She took her cues from her father, who was also a teacher. Her dad taught middle school and high school math and science.
"He was just a pathological teacher," Gross said. "No matter where we were, there was an opportunity to teach us something about every kind of thing.
"The teachers I had growing up were always so kind, and I just always loved school—all of the things we could be learning and the projects we were doing and the field trips."
Gross has worked at many schools in the district and at both the high school and elementary school levels. When she had the chance to work full-time with the little kids, she took it.
"They are just so excited and full of energy and ideas and creativity," she said.
Gross said she enjoys seeing the students grow from kindergarten to fifth grade.
"Now I am to the point I have lots of students who are children of students I had before," she said. "They are my second-generation kids, and I get to work with co-workers who were my students. That's really cool."
Gross said sometimes she feels like a little celebrity here in Hays.
"At the swimming pool they know you or in Dillons," she said. "I just love being part of all that community here."
Gross said she enjoys her job so much her work days fly by.
"They're just fearless—little kids are," Gross said. "They'll just try anything. By the time they are in fifth grade they are a little more worried and uptight, but mostly they are game for anything and super forgiving and kind to one another."
She said it really isn’t ever about the art “project.”
"It’s really about the children. All of the things we do in art are 'special' to my students," she said. "A little bit of their enthusiasm and joy rub off on me each day. It’s one of the best parts of my work."
Teaching art is even more important now than when she started, Gross said.
"Real hands-on actual experiences are lacking in a lot of their experiences," she said. "They are not in the mud and playing with Play-Doh. I have kindergarteners who come that don't have many art skills.
"They're really hands on. There is not one specific answer. They have to really be divergent thinkers and come up with their own ideas and plans. They have lots of failures and successes."
Gross said those problem solving skills and that independent thinking spreads to all of their other curriculum.
Gross plays music in her classroom whenever she can. She said it helps many of her students get into a creative space. Sometimes she plays classical music. Sometimes the music is more upbeat like "Don't Worry, Be Happy" while the students make worry dolls.
"It is one of those universal languages—music and art and dance—those kinds of things that everyone can do and be very successful," she said. "I try to make sure everyone is successful."
Gross said she is more of a teacher than an artist. She used to paint, but with two children of her own that are still in school, she says she doesn't have much time for her own art.
Gross said one her favorite aspects of being a teacher is being a part of the whole school.
"All of us work together toward the education of these kids," she said. "What might not work here, someone else catches it along the way. [I appreciate] just getting to see the kids change and grow.
"Sometimes they get here in the morning, and they're not having the very best day, but they know this is a very safe place and it is very consistent and they know what to expect."
She said the people she works with are amazing. Unlike other professions in which there is a lot of competition, everyone is trying to help everyone else be the best they can at her schools.
She said it has been amazing to see children she had in class go one to be her colleagues.
"I can see little bits of exactly who they were then, especially when they were in third, fourth and fifth grade," she said. "They're still just like that, but better—still just as sassy as they were, curious as they were, funny as they were. It makes me say, 'Yeah, I knew you would be a teacher.'
"I have little kids now that I betcha will be teachers too. I have a handful that I think she's going to be a teacher. That one is going to be a teacher, because they have that same kind of feeling about this place. It's like their other home."