Mustang elementary teacher is lifelong Bronco
MUSTANG — The Mustang Centennial Elementary teacher of the year is one of more than 110 district employees who graduated from Mustang High School. Cheryl Harrison, who teaches fourth-grade English language arts and social studies, is a lifelong Bronco who married her high school sweetheart.
She earned a degree in home economics from the University of Central Oklahoma, but jobs were hard to come by for something so specialized. Her family owned a business, Calico Cottage, where Harrison found a knack for teaching handson classes in sewing and crafts.
After starting a family, she enrolled at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma for certification to teach elementary school.
“I got a taste for elementary when my kids started school,” she said. “Then I realized how much fun it is.”
She was hired to teach third grade at Mustang Trails Elementary. There were familiar faces from her church and a supportive team to work with.
“It was a total blast,” she said of that first year.
Harrison has taught in third-grade classrooms and second grade, as well. This year was her 22nd to teach in Mustang. Her classroom is a mixture of old school and technology, with everything organized around the room in colorful tubs. There’s a SmartBoard on the wall where she can virtually take the kids anywhere, including Catalina Island, the setting of the book they read, “The Blue Dolphins.”
“Technology is part of their world and you have to go with it,” she said. “But you have to teach them balance. It’s good, but it’s OK to go back to a piece of literature and put your hands on it.
“In their lives, everything is instant. And I’m just old school enough to say let’s sit back and enjoy this. Let’s let this marinate a little bit. Let’s spend some think time on this.”
Harrison can’t remember the lesson she was teaching when one fourth-grade boy nearly shouted in class, “Oh my! I just got blasted with knowledge!”
“I just about rolled in the floor laughing,” Harrison said. “He made my day. It was priceless.”
His exclamation is now a quote that hangs on the wall, a reminder of a moment when teaching and learning synced into a moment of clarity. Those moments are why she keeps signing on for another year.
“The job is still fun, but it’s hard. It’s exhausting but it’s exhilarating at the same time. I won’t say they need me, but I need them,” she said. “I think we need each other.”