By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A quote on Holy Family Elementary School first-grade teacher Ann Weber's classroom door reads ...
"And will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed!" from Dr. Seuss.
Weber was nominated for the Hays Post Teacher of the Month by parent Shayla Werner, who said Weber is beyond kind and has truly taken her commitment to her students' success to heart.
"Recently, our daughter needed some extra help with reading, and Mrs. Weber offered to help her after school to help her catch up. She wasn’t asked to do this and offered her precious time out of the goodness of her heart," Werner said.
"We appreciate and don’t take for granted that our daughter has a very special teacher that has our daughter's best interest at heart," Werner said.
"To give her time so freely when she absolutely wouldn’t have to is going that extra mile and also teaches our daughter that people do care and the importance of being kind and doing good deeds."
One of Weber's most significant challenges is trying to keep track of all of her students' learning to make sure no one is falling behind.
"I just love when the kids finally catch on to something and you can almost see it in their faces," she said." 'That's how that's supposed to be!' or 'That's the answer!' Just seeing the excitement in the kids's learning is what I like."
Weber, a 37-year veteran teacher, has a passion for lifelong learning. Twenty-two of those years have been at Holy Family. The other 15 years were at St. Mary's Catholic School in Ellis.
She likes to get her students young, so she can instill that love of learning in her students early.
"I think the thing that I love is they are so excited to come," Weber said. "They are so happy to be here. They want to learn. It doesn't take them a whole lot to get excited about it. There is so much energy in this level."
To engage her students, she incorporates music and movement into her lessons whenever possible.
The students sing and dance to the Macarena to learn the months of the year. The students sing another song for the days of the week.
"I think to get the kids to learn they need to use all of their senses," she said. "They have to move and to sing and to listen and to see."
Although Weber did not attend Catholic schools when she was a child, she did have Catholic nuns as teachers going to school in nearby Victoria.
"I admired them all," she said of the nuns. ... "They seemed peaceful. That is the kind of teacher I try to be, more calm."
One of her students commented to her, "Mrs. Weber, you never yell."
"Nobody would listen to me if I did," Weber said.
"I think that would be my philosophy," she said, "to not force it. My style of teaching is to be clam, and I think that keeps them calmer too."
She said she wants her students to learn kindness and they can get ahead and get what they want through kindness.
Weber is now teaching the children of children she taught in grade school. She said she has been enjoying watching the Thomas More Prep-Marian girls basketball team this year as she had some of the students in her classes.
"Some of that I didn't see in first grade," Weber said. "I would have been kind of surprised if someone said she is going to be a good athlete or he is going to be good at this or that.
"They change so much between first grade and high school. Then again, there are some right now I can tell they are going to be some pretty good football players or basketball players by just watching them on the playground."
Although Weber is nearing retirement age, she has no plans to give up teaching anytime soon.
"I don't know what else I would do," she said. "It's not really a job. You get new kids every year, so it's almost like a new job every year.
"I don't see myself burning out, thinking I can't do this anymore because I know in May this group goes on and I get a new group."
True to Weber's desire to keep learning, she and her husband have been building a house in rural Ellis County two miles east of Munjor.
She had never been very handy, but has learned to put up drywall and install light fixtures.
"I can't wait for it to be done," she said. "I've learned a lot."
Weber and her husband hope to move into their new home in the next few months.