4 minute read
Maddie Balus - “Teacher Creates a Connection with Her Students” [Lisa Klemme
Teacher Creates a Connection With Her Students
A teacher’s life and impact in a classroom can create a change in the students they come from. Each student is different, which makes a teacher’s job so special and diverse. They have to help, care, and fill their students with knowledge along with life lessons so they can grow into the person they would like to become. This powerful impact can be seen across teachers everywhere.
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One teacher that has created an inspirational impact is Mrs. Lisa Klemme. She is the eighth grade literature and language teacher at St. Wenceslaus Catholic School. Klemme was raised as an Iowan in a small town, which meant she was outside most of her childhood. Her Catholic faith raised her outside of her public grade school and high school that consisted of about 52 kids in her grade at the time. Later in her life, she married her classmate, who also came from the same town.
Becoming a teacher was not her first choice in her discovery of her career. She started off her college years as an undecided major, but along the way she decided she wanted to start a life in advertising. Through this major, she noticed a connection into education. “Everything I did, I was surrounded by kids,” Klemme said, “It was a natural progression and really I often think that I am doing the hardest advertising: trying to sell nouns and verbs; [Trying to sell] that writing is fun. I feel like I am still doing what I started doing. It’s just that I am not selling a product; I am selling writing and reading.”
With this change in her career path, she drew inspiration and help from her grandma. Her grandma was a oneroom country school teacher, which meant she taught all the ages of the town. Klemme asks herself, “What would she do?” to help herself get through her day when she is stuck. Along with this inspiration, Klemme asks the Holy Spirit to help her say the right thing to make sure that everyone is heard and that their feelings are being acknowledged. “I want to be whatever the kids need each day,” Klemme said.
Klemme has been in education for 30 years. Over the years, students have given her an assortment of “thank yous” which fills a box in her home. She is motivated by these thank yous, and these have created her “why” in education. “If there was a fire, I would have to grab that box,” Klemme said, “I am humbled by the fact that I can add to that box every year with some student who has written me a note. It could be on a scrap of paper that they have left on my desk or it could be a formal letter. Every single one of those I have kept. I wish students could know how much those words of encouragement mean. I don’t get paid a million dollars, but people who get paid a million dollars don’t get what I get, and they are never going to.” She said she is glad that she could help students be seen when they have felt like they are invisible. Klemme wants every student to be seen because they deserve to be seen.
Through her years of being a teacher, her best reward has been seeing the children of her past students come through. She loves to see her students coming back with who they have now become. Klemme knows that they probably will not remember the specific words she said or a specific lesson, but with her new generation of students coming through, the parents remember that her classroom was a good place to be. To her, that is the only thing that matters.
Being a mom and raising her own kids has helped Klemme connect to her students in the classroom. Whether they are a stubborn, difficult student or a quiet, well-behaved student, she wants to create a connection between her and them to help her get to know them better. “The first set of conferences I’ll ask: ‘What do you love about your kid?’ because sometimes kids are hard to love. As a mom, I know how passionate I am about loving my kids, even though they can be frustrating sometimes,” Klemme said. Klemme merges her teacher and mom side to help be a light and an outlet in the classroom.
Students leave a positive impact when it comes to
By J1 Reporter Maddie Balus
teaching and Klemme hopes to do the same, whether it be a good day or a bad day. She has interacted with many kids throughout her years of teaching, and she loves the different perspectives of an idea that comes to the surface in the classroom. These new angles at an idea have helped her get to know herself while proving to be the greatest part of the job. “Getting to know the students, well, that’s the best part of the job. Even though I am much older than they are, we are all on the same journey just trying to figure it out. It is a gift to interact,” Klemme said.
Lisa Klemme stands in her 8th grade classroom. Photo by Maddie Balus
