Emily Mentzer, Lebanon Express writer | Posted: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 5:00 pm
First-grade teacher Terri Krebs has spent 33 years performing for young students.
"I think you have to be an actress or actor to be a teacher," she said. "So much media the kids interact with is so bright and loud, and coming into a humdrum classroom isn't going to get their attention."
Krebs said she does some pretty crazy things.
"When I read stories, everyone has a different voice," she said. "I often break out in song."
Krebs said she incorporates a lot of music in her teaching, which is not a surprise as she got her start as a music teacher.
"As long as it's rhythm and rhyme and tuneful, they'll remember it," she said.
Krebs was born and raised in Lebanon. She graduated from Lebanon Union High School in the Class of 1971.
"My mentor, the reason I became a music teacher, started with my sixth-grade music teacher at Seven Oak Middle School, Mel Knight," Krebs said. "I got lucky because he moved to the high school so then I got him again. I wanted to be just like him."
Her first four years teaching were at Jefferson Elementary School, where she taught advanced and beginning band, choir and classroom music.
"I knew every kid in school, which was neat to see," she said. "But I never got to know the kids really well."
After a year of teaching preschool, Krebs earned her classroom certification.
"With a smaller group of 25 to 30 students, I really get to know the kids well," she said. "And if you get one that was held back, it's really hard to let go."
Krebs went on to teach at Green Acres, Queen Anne and finally at Pioneer School, where she has taught first, second and third grades for the last seven years.
Although she worked with fourth, fifth and sixth graders at Green Acres and Queen Anne, she said first or second grade is her favorite.
"I liked all the others, but I like the little guys," she said. "They make so much progress. I like to save all their work and show them at the end of the year: This is how you wrote, or this is the book you were reading. They are astonished to see what they've accomplished. It's fun."
Krebs said anyone considering a teaching career should make sure it's something they truly love.
"Don't do it just because you'll have time off in the summer," she said. "You'll be miserable - your class will be miserable - if you don't love the kids."
Krebs said the best thing is helping a child with low self-esteem, or who is struggling socially, academically or behaviorally.
"Not that you're a miracle worker," she said. "But when you stumble across the thing that makes the turn for the kid, if it's the right turn, it makes a difference at home and at school."
Krebs uses the term "stumble across" because she is always changing things up.
"The biggest challenge is when you see what you can do to help a kid, but you don't get parent support," she said. "So it's just what you can do in six hours, in the four walls of a classroom."
Krebs said families have changed in the last 30 years.
"It's harder to make a living and survive with one parent working," she said. "So everybody's out there struggling."
Krebs said with only 24 hours in a day, making dinner, eating together and helping with homework doesn't happen like it used to.
"What do your children want for dinner? The answer is you," she said, quoting a study she'd read.
Krebs said families who consistently have dinner and conversation together have far fewer behavioral problems.
She said with the constant media stream children are exposed to, teachers have to be very dramatic.
"You have to sell what you're doing," Krebs said. "You have to believe it. You have to figure out how to make it fun. That's just the way kids are built these days. It's a whole step above what it used to be."
Krebs doesn't plan on sitting around after retirement.
"I have a couple of community things I'm going to do," she said. "I want to do some fun things, get a little more involved in fundraising, and find out what we can do to gain some of that community pride and spirit at the high school."
It won't be all about the community. Krebs has many personal hobbies she would like to work on.
Along with quilting, scrap booking and gardening, she said she wants to take piano lessons.
"I was a clarinet and sax major," Krebs said. "I've never been able to play piano as well as I want to."
Krebs also plans to spend time with family, including her grandson and her daughter, who attends South Virginia University on an academic scholarship.
She said she has been fortunate to work with wonderful people in Lebanon.
"I have made many friends and cherish those people," Krebs said. "It's neat when you see people and parents of kids I've taught. It's always fun to meet up with them and see their progress."
She said this year she has a kid in her class whose parents she taught.
"I'm going to quit before I get the grandkids," Krebs said.
Krebs said the staff at Pioneer has said they will have her back.
"I hope they do," she said. "I will miss the kids a lot. You wouldn't have schools if you didn't have kids."