Second-Grade Teacher’s Charisma Spans Generations

The second-graders’ attention was riveted on two foam cubes marked with numbers.

Like gigantic dice, the cubes landed again and again in the midst of the students’ circle. Tension ran high.

The kids knew the rules of the game: Subtract the smaller number from the larger. First person to answer correctly wins. And only the students whose team was up could answer out loud.

A 15, an 8 … and fingers flew as kids counted out their answers. “Uh, uh … seven!”

Tanya Palmer, 21, was both a player and judge when it came to disputes about who answered first.

“C’mon Tanya, you’ve got to practice your math facts,” said student Courtney Connors, when Palmer let down her team.

Teacher Phyllis Richeson smiled all the while in the background. And with good reason. The math game turns routine subtraction into a hopping good time. Kids begged to play longer when Richeson turned to a new activity.

And Palmer’s presence and enthusiasm was testament to Richeson’s teaching skills.

Palmer herself was a student years ago in Richeson’s second-grade class at Ness Elementary. Now an education student at Eastern Washington University, Palmer is volunteering to give herself extra exposure to the classroom.

“I hope I’ll be further ahead when it comes time to try for a job,” she said.

What the two or three times a week volunteering will do, Richeson assures Palmer, is to give her an extra edge so that she’ll be well prepared for her student teaching.

Palmer remembers some of the extra things that Richeson did for her students, like proclaiming a citizen of the week. She still has her own certificate from her lucky week.

And there in one corner of Richeson’s room is this week’s citizen of the week display, complete with certificate, photographs and biography.

“I think that especially career elementary teachers have a knack of finding strategies to teach kids basic educational concepts. Phyllis Richeson has taken her cubes and dice, and bean counting - she’s been doing that for 20 or 25 years,” said Ness Principal Tom Moore.

‘Think about me’

Skyview Elementary fourth-graders learned about the hard side of life last week, as they listened to Brian Lemons share his last 12 years.

“What’s wrong with this picture, guys?” Lemons said, as he turned his wheelchair to the side. He broke his back in a drunken driving accident when he was 17 years old.

“I was all through school when this happened.”

In recent years, Lemons, accompanied by staff from Sacred Heart Medical Center’s trauma center, has spoken to students around Spokane.

Questions flew from the fourth-graders in Linda Rapp’s and Patricia Orebaugh’s classes:

“How do you celebrate your birthday?”

“The same way you do, with cake and candles and gifts.”

“Do you have, like, a job?”

“This is my job.”

“Can you drive?”

“Yes, I can. I’m pretty fortunate, I can use my left foot pretty well.”

“Do you have, in your house, all your stuff down low so you can reach it?”

“Yes, most of the stuff I need. My wife can get the other things for me.”

“How many times have you been in the hospital?”

“A lot of times.”

Lemons told the nearly 50 children about the accident, how the car rolled so violently, end over end, that it send up a cloud of dust.

If not for that dust, a nearby farmer might not have driven to the site to investigate. And Lemons might not have lived.

“Think about me, guys, when you’re going to do something stupid,” Lemons said. “Think about me.”

CV says: Come visit, y’all

The public is invited to visit any school in the Central Valley district today.

The open houses are designed to help want people learn for themselves what goes on during a normal day in CV’s schools, said Superintendent Wally Stanley.

About 700 people visited CV schools during last year’s open house.

Speaking up at East Valley

About 35 students and 10 teachers at East Valley High School gathered Wednesday to discuss topics such as conflict resolution, diversity and equity.

The idea was to bring different groups of students into a dialogue that could turn into an ongoing forum, said Vice Principal Ross Stookey. Among other things, an ongoing group could help identify problems for the administration before they reach the boiling point, he said.

The session was held at Ross Point Conference Center in Post Falls.

“This is one more attempt … to show our leaders that there’s one more voice in the school we need to hear from,” Stookey said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a Valley school or about the achievements of Valley students, teachers or school staff, please let us know at the Valley Voice, 13208 E. Sprague, Spokane, WA 99216. Call: 927-2166. Fax: 927-2175.