Retiring Teachers

At the end of every school year, everyone is excited for the upcoming summer, moving on to college and three months to relax. But  with the end of every school year comes teacher’s ending the career. This year these teachers include, Mrs.Hannas, Mrs. Rydzewski, Mr. King, Mrs.Halbig and Mrs. Meiseles. These five teachers all brought so many uplifting qualities and created countless memories.  We want to have a brief commemoration of each of these teachers.

First teacher, Mrs. Hannas  has been teaching for 21 years, 19 years at West Morris. When we asked her if she had a great memory, she said no, she has “great emotions. She loved the students and colleagues she worked with. She hopes she has return that love to everyone that has been around her.

Mrs. Rydzewski has been teaching at WMC for 29 years. He favorite memory was when she took seven kids to Washington D.C. The night before the kids slept on her living room floor. They stayed up till 2 AM writing a speech. Once they got down to D.C they read the speech to Senator Hatfield (The Oregon Senator at that time). The speech was explaining why the Opal creek in Oregon should be put on land preservation because of logging. She used to bring her students out there in 1994-1995. Mrs. Rydzewski said, “That is what learning is all about.” That was a first hand learning experience, and saw how much the kid grew from that experience.

Coach King started teaching in the 1977-78 school year. He pointed out two special memories he had teaching. He took students to the Morristown YMCA, and the students did not know how to swim. After a few lessons he said they grew and “got a lot more comfortable in the pool.” He said it was awesome how they were so scared in the beginning, but then being able to jump in off the diving board! His second memory was in his early years, when he was teaching kids how to drive. King said it was awesome because he really felt he had a big part in getting teenagers there license. Clearly, Coach King, had more influence on kids than just in gym class!

Mrs. Halbig has been teaching at West Morris Central for 11 great years. During her time here, her fondest memory has to be being able to teach “ the smiling faces of my students who were eager to learn new culinary skills and cook delicious recipes!” Mrs. Halbig also feels that her colleagues are very special to her, “especially my friend for life, Mrs. McManus!”

Mrs.Meiseles has been working at West Morris for 23 years, and had one thought about teaching here. Mrs. meiseles said “I have found that working with students over four years (they usually play in the orchestra all 4 years in high school), I get to see them mature as both young adults and musicians.  That has created fond memories for me.”  Not only will she remember her students but I’m sure most of her students will remember her forever. Thank you Mrs. Meiseles

These five teachers all had a major impact on this school. Whether it be math, english, cooking, music or gym. All of these teachers inspired students to follow their passions.  Hopefully this teaching experience at West Morris also helped the teachers themselves grow a little bit. I’m sure for the teachers it’s a bittersweet ending for the five teachers but I’m all he students here, will miss these five teachers.

Good luck on your new adventures and  new challenges.