PALM HARBOR — Susan Adams is a bit of a pioneer.
When Lake St. George Elementary opened in 1988, she became one of the school’s first teachers. In her 46 years with Pinellas County Schools, she has never been afraid to try something new. Now, after nearly five decades in the classroom, she is retiring.
This year — her last — marked Adams’ first teaching second grade. Through a practice called looping, she moved up with many of the students she had taught the year before. The new grade brought a learning curve, but she found plenty of upside in teaching mostly the same children two years running.
“Normally the first five or six weeks, it’s me getting to know them, them getting to know me and them getting to know each other,” she said. “We let any parent choose to keep their child with me or not. They all said yes. One couple said, ‘If you don’t want to take our sweetheart, we understand.’ My response was, ‘I take everyone. I take everyone.’
“Now, I was concerned about the new children, but the others welcomed them. We say, ‘Throw kindness like confetti.’ And we saw it happening. We saw it happening.”
Adams, who earned a master’s degree from the University of South Florida, said she took on extra training to prepare for the new grade. But she said she has learned just as much from her students.
“You also can’t take offense, because they can be brutally honest,” she said. “They’re like little sponges. They’re excited to learn and less worried about their peers — whether they can do something or not. I’ll quietly give out a score and they’ll say out loud, ‘I got 8 out of 10.’ They’re more aware, they’re more challenging. I say, ‘We’re going to take a test,’ and they get excited.”
Adams also turned a daily chore into a bright spot: greeting children at the door each morning.
“I thought I could be doing other things instead of standing there, but then I’d say something nice like, ‘I love your haircut,’” she recalled. “Soon, they became the ones saying ‘Good morning’ as other students came in.
“As a primary teacher with primary children, I feel we should get to know them. If you can tell they’re having a rough morning, say something nice to distract them. It’s important to learn and read each other.”
Her advice to teachers, especially new ones: “You have to love what you do. The reward of this job is far beyond anything monetary. … Everything you do matters.”
Her 38-year run at Lake St. George started, she said, “when we opened all the boxes and started the traditions.” Those traditions included a schoolwide Veterans Day celebration; a holiday parade teachers fought to keep on campus; and field day, when teachers ran relays and parents were invited to watch.
In retirement, Adams expects less traveling and more time around daughters Katelyn and Jessica, who both work for the school district — one as a middle school teacher, the other as a marketing and social media specialist.
“I think I may do some volunteering at my daughter’s school,” she said. “One coaches volleyball, so I may do some scorekeeping.
“These kids, I wouldn’t say they’re smarter, but they’re exposed to more at an earlier age. That can be good or concerning. I’ve said this to a few people: They’re so capable. They teach us; we don’t always teach them.”