Editor’s note: This month’s Hays Post Teacher of the Month was awarded a special prize. Heidi Wamser, Roosevelt kindergarten teacher, will be the honorary game captain at the Harlem Globetrotters game Feb. 5 at Gross Memorial Coliseum.
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
When you walk into a classroom full of students who love you and are all excited to be at school, it is an easy place to be, said Heidi Wamser, Roosevelt kindergarten teacher.
Wamser is in her 19th year of teaching kindergarten, all of which have been in Hays USD 489 schools.
She was nominated to be January’s Hays Post Teacher of the Month by parent Brandi VonLintel.
“Throughout every parent’s journey in their child’s education, many of us are lucky to have teachers like Mrs. Wamser,” VonLintel wrote in her nomination. “She taught my child four years ago and still has left an imprint on him to this day.
“Helping in her classroom throughout his year with her, I saw exactly what every child got to experience while in her care. She has the ability to inspire, ignite imagination and truly care about her students — going above and beyond to provide extra activities and special treats throughout the year.”
VonLintel continued, “I cannot thank her enough for helping instill the love of learning in my child, and I know without a doubt that she will continue to do this for all of her classroom children throughout her career.”
Wamser said she loves teaching kindergarten because of the kids.
“The biggest thing is that they still love every minute of being at school,” she said. “They love each other. They love their school. They love their teacher.
“Plus the math gets super harder as you get older, and I am not good at math,” Wamser joked.
Wamser said her favorite part of teaching the littlest students is when they learn something new.
“I think the best is the light in their eyes and the moment they actually figure something out they have been working so hard on,” she said. “You can literally see the light bulb go on by the smile on their face or you can see their shoulders aren’t hung anymore.
“I always try to tell them, ‘Look what you did! Look what you figured out!’ So that they know this was on you. This is not me. It wasn’t me who figured it out. You did. You are 5 or 6 and you read that book or you wrote that story or you did that math problem. I don’t think you see that kind of joy and love in classroom work at the upper grades as much.”
Wamser comes from a family of teachers. Both her father and mother were teachers. Her mother taught for more than 30 years at Munjor and then at Wilson Elementary School.
“I saw the work she put in,” Wamser said. “She was a first-grade teacher and then switched to second grade. Weekends, nights, holidays — she was always at school. I knew that it was going to be a difficult profession, but yet so rewarding in the end.”
Wasmer said she has seen that reward in her career. She has the opportunity to touch the lives of the 23 children in her class seven hours per day for 10 months out of the year.
“Everyone’s profession is important,” she said. “One couldn’t do something without another. But when you think about it, lawyers couldn’t be lawyers without a teacher. Doctors won’t be doctors without a teacher. A teacher has to touch every single person’s life. No matter what their outcome is as a job or profession, they are influenced by a teacher all the time. It is a pretty powerful position to be in.
“People who teach are amazing individuals. It is a lot when you sit down and think about it.”
She takes that position of power seriously. She described kindergarten as the children’s ground floor. She builds on that ground floor through positive reinforcement, teamwork and success.
When a child accomplishes a task, Wamser encourages the child to share the accomplishment with his or her friends.
“For instance if Legos was in groups this week and someone created their snowmobile, we show the entire class. Everyone gives that child a round of applause and we take their picture and we post it — so parents can see and their friends can see. It becomes an important thing, and it drives them in the end to create again. When they have another group like that, they are more apt to work hard to see if they can get to that point again.”
One of Wamser’s great honors in her teaching career was teaching both of her daughters. During school hours, the girls had to address their mother as Mrs. Wamser, but it was still “Mom” at home. The children in her class didn’t figure out until January when her oldest daughter’s birthday rolled around the two were related. The children in her youngest daughter’s class didn’t figure out the relationship until almost spring break when the class started talking about last names.
“Not treating them differently was tricky, because I am Mom, but yet being able to see everything that they were experiencing at a kindergarten level because I was the teacher, that was pretty amazing,” she said.
In January, Wamser focuses lessons on Martin Luther King Jr. and the holiday that celebrates his birthday. She wears a “Teach Peace” T-shirt and the children participate in an activity involving eggs. This activity provoked one of her favorite teaching memories.
Wamser brings in eggs that are brown, white, speckled and sometimes blue. The children talk about how the exteriors of the eggs look very different. She then asks the children what they think the eggs will look like on the inside. Most of think the eggs will look very different on the inside. She cracks the eggs and all of the eggs look the same on the inside.
She has the children look at their skin and hair. They notice that they all look a little different.
One year, Wamser had a boy in her class whose father was from Africa and had dark skin. When the children compared skin, it was if for the first time he realized that his was different.
“At 5 years old, it took 87 days for him to figure out, ‘I’m different on the outside,’ but in kindergarten you can make them believe they are all the same. They are all 5 and 6 years old. They all look the same. They all feel the same. …
“Then all of the other kids were,’So, who cares that you look different on the outside?’ By that time we had opened up all the different eggs, and the kids said, ‘But you are the same on the inside. You’re our friend, and that makes you like everybody else.’ I tear up, because they are so innocent and so lovingly blind to the fact people are different. What point do they change and become nasty to each other? Everyone needs to see that lesson from a 5 and 6 year old’s eyes — to see, ‘No, everybody’s the same.’ ”
She said she walks away from instances like that and thinks, “Thanks for teaching me something today.”
Wamser tries to end each day with a moment of love and reassurance. Each child can opt for a handshake, high five or a hug as they leave her class.
“I feel they walk out with something positive even if it has been a really cruddy day or something happened. So the next day they are still going to know that Mrs. Wamser is still going to love you. She is still going to be right here at the door. Sometimes the most normal part of a child’s life is that seven hours they are at school in the day.”