Joy Of Teaching Offset The Sacrifices In Career Switch
Bill and Teri Burch have no regrets. Three years with clunker cars, no credit cards and no extras for their two young daughters were worth it.
“I never had any doubt,” Teri says, looking into her husband’s face.
At 35, Bill decided to teach. He loved his career as a printer, but it didn’t offer enough opportunity.
Career counseling convinced Bill he could teach printing in Spokane or Coeur d’Alene high schools and colleges. So he and Teri decided to pay off all of their bills except the house in one year, apply for financial aid and send Bill to school full time.
But after two years of classes, Bill discovered there were no local teaching jobs in his field.
“I felt misled,” he says, but smiles.
He had envied the elementary education students in his college classes. They had fun - and Teri loved teaching kindergarten in Coeur d’Alene. Bill wrote children’s stories as a hobby and enjoyed kids.
Faced with moving, he listened to the inner voice that told him to stay in school one more year.
The day last year he substituted for a teacher in Winton Elementary’s first grade, he knew he’d chosen well. The kids taught him their ABC song. He taught them the Ray Charles version. He was a hit.
“I knew right away I was good,” he says.
Eleven weeks student-teaching with Hayden Meadows fourth-graders this fall cemented his love of teaching, but unnerved him. The teachers he worked with were so prepared. They seemed to know by intuition what to do.
“I’m afraid in the time it takes me to get that good, I’ll hurt some kids,” Bill says. He graduates soon and begins teaching at Coeur d’Alene’s Fernan Elementary in January.
Mothers and kids already flag him down at the mall, hug him in the streets. Teri’s seen him work with her students and is convinced he’s a natural. That’s good, after three hard years.
“It definitely was all worth it,” she says, throwing her arms up at the mention of his Dec. 22 graduation. “But if he says now he wants to stay in school another year and get his master’s (degree), it’s not going to happen.”
What deers they are
Sandpoint’s Susan Comerinsky discovered four deer on her acreage three years ago and has fed them through the winter ever since.
She used some old galvanized metal trash can lids for food dishes because they were strong enough to withstand the deer’s abuse. But the lids fell apart last winter.
Unfortunately, stores wouldn’t let Susan buy new lids without the cans. She was ready to give up a few months ago when she saw clothes displayed in new metal trash cans at the BUM Equipment store at the Factory Outlet Mall in Post Falls.
When she told the manager why she wanted them, the woman gave them to her free.
“They’ll last forever,” Susan says. And ensure BUM herds of devotion for years.
Light up for Christmas
Sure, Ponderosa Motors in Coeur d’Alene is putting on a free laser light Christmas show every half-hour Friday and Saturday to attract buyers. But the kiddies will love it and parents get a free KidCare ID booklet for stopping by.
The booklet holds the identification information and photographs of children parents need in emergencies. The deal’s on 6:30 p.m. to midnight at the Fourth Street car lot.
Well-wishers
Is your Christmas wish this year so special that you dream about it every night? Maybe it’s for a kidney for your aunt or a shot at the Olympics.
Dream big this Christmas for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 83814; FAX to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo