Teacher shares excitement of learning

As a child, Heather Large did not like school. But she loved children. Now a 20-year-veteran kindergarten teacher at Powers Elementary School, 401 Washington St. in Amherst, the past motivates the 44-yearold Large to infuse excitement into each day.

“I teach because I think it is the most natural way to give back in life,” she said. “I try to go into every day with the attitude that I’m going to do something fun and interesting and try to make the kids feel that they’re important and that they’re great at something.”

Large grew up in Elyria and graduated from Midview Local Schools.

“I didn’t have a great elementary school experience as a child,” she said. “I was on the younger end. I have a summer birthday. I didn’t enjoy school. I didn’t think it was fun. I didn’t feel successful in elementary school at all.”

She said her personal light bulb clicked on at age 12 or 13.

“I always enjoyed babysitting,” Large said. “I felt like I was good at that, making the day fun. I always wanted to be around kids.

“My initial plan was to open a home day care. As I got into college, I wanted to do more.”

Large also is mother of a college student and a Midview High School student. Her husband teaches in Elyria.

“So, I have a great safe place at home,” she said.

Amherst Exempted Village Schools switched to free-for-everyone all-day kindergarten two years ago, and Large said she loves it.

Before that, all-day kindergarten was tuition based, and she said she also taught those classes.

“All day kindergarten is a slice of heaven compared to half day, which I did for 12 of my years,” Large said. “You actually get to know the kids and you can do so many motivating, enriching things with the extra time.”

She said she creates activities to engender a desire in the youngsters to want to return to school every day.

“When I was teaching half-days, I watched the clock all day long,” Large said. “’Nope. I don’t have time to listen to you right now.’ ‘We have to be done with this in five minutes.’ I had to make so many tough choices about, ‘What good things can I not do?’

“Because we’re here with them more, we can work on life, social issues, problem solving, things like that. They have more opportunities to express themselves. It’s easier to pull in all the materials when you have time to incorporate all the techniques.”

The state of Ohio mandates create the toughest

problems for teachers, she said.

“Keeping a balance between what I know is good for kids and what standards and testing have forced us to do with kids,” Large said. “Expectations are very, very high for even the youngest. Because of development and exposure, every kid comes to me with a different background.

“Yet every kid is expected to reach a number that is supposed to show growth and that number can never show growth. For me, it’s balancing my heart and my head.”

Large said her favorite time of the day is greeting the children in the morning.

“It’s usually a different way every day,” she said. “They usually sit outside the room until I come get them. I walk out and say, ‘Howdy,’ or ‘If you’re a Cavs fan, get in the room.’

“They all look so eager every morning. They have a smile and they’re ready to go.”

The class talks about the Cleveland Cavaliers every day, writes down the scores of games and shares favorite players.

She said her least favorite activity is dealing with mandates that pull her away from great things she wants to do that are good for children.

“We have a lot of meetings and extra things to do that pull from your energy and attention,” Large said. “I think the expectations have changed and the fight for a score has diminished the importance of development and educating the whole child.

“There are so many ways children need to develop so that they can achieve a score, yet to get to the score, you have to skip some of those things. We battle daily. We have to teach them handwriting for all the tactile and sensory motor skills that are so important for development of fine motor skills.

“Yet you know they’re going to be typing in a few years. We have to balance these things so things are meaningful and they make those connections.”

Three times a year, the district tests students to weigh whether they meet beginning, middle and end-of-year benchmarks,

she said.

“They do wonderful,” Large said. “Most of the kids meet their end-of-year benchmarks by the middle of the year. Most importantly, they’re getting confident with their skills. The most enjoyable thing is to see them believe in themselves.

“I can’t go without saying that I had fantastic mentors in this district. Three ladies who since have retired from kindergarten: Barb Guzik from Lorain; Barb Robinson, North Olmsted; and Diane Coffman, Amherst.

“They are remarkable people. I aspire to be like them. They stayed in kindergarten and retired from kindergarten. It helps me keep my focus on kids because teaching really has changed over the years.”

All children make gains, Large said, adding not all of the youngster reach the state goals.

“I’ve had wonderful support from families,” she said. “They have filled in the gaps where school funding doesn’t help. They are remarkably supportive.

“My job is the best job you could ever have, and I’m surrounded by people who are just as deserving. And the support staff, there are so many people who make it look easy.”

Large said when she started teaching, if your students left knowing their letters and sounds, teachers literally thought they were heroes.

“And that’s not enough now,” she said. “They leave reading.”

In the classroom, children move through learning centers with different activities, such as finding words in a puzzle, sounding out new words or reading a student magazine with Large’s help and talking about what they read.

“With the learning centers, they’re up, playing, interacting with friends,” she said. “They’re eager. This is a very active, noisy classroom and they learn a lot from each other.

“Sometimes, I’m the one who sets up the environment like a cruise ship director. To this day, I still love the energy from being around kids. That feeds me. It’s just the energy kids have. These days, I need a little more caffeine to keep up with them.”