By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Laura Gaughan, reading specialist at O’Loughlin Elementary School, said she thinks being a teacher and shaping young lives is the most important thing a person can do with his or her life.
Gaughan has been honored as one of only seven Kansas Master Teachers for 2019.
To earn this honor, an educator must be first selected by fellow NEA members in their school. She was then selected as a district Master Teacher. Finally Gaughan, a teacher for 27 years, submitted an application to the state level. The honorees were announced last week.
“I am so honored and humbled to have that,” Gaughan said of her award. “I work with such great, great people. I don’t think people know how hard teachers work.”
Gaughan, 52, is a reading specialist, which is a federally funded position. She spends part of her day as a reading recovery teacher. In this program, she works one on one with first graders to help them develop their reading skills. She also works with groups of students in grades kindergarten to second grade on early reading intervention.
Yet another portion of Gaughan’s day is consumed with English language arts support for other teachers.
Teaching is a family affair for Gaughan.
Gaughan’s mom and dad were both teachers in St. John. Her father taught middle school and high school math, and her mom taught middle school social studies, second grade and was also a reading teacher. Her brother, sister and sister-in-law are all also teachers. Her parents were role models and inspired her to go into the profession.
“It is the most important thing you can do with your life — to make an impact on kids and be able to shape the future,” she said. “If one child grows up and remembers you, that is pretty special. If they grow up and say, ‘That teacher made a difference in my life,’ that’s pretty special.
“It is a wonderful way to live your life — kids running up to you and hugging you. It is a great way to live your life to feel like you are impacting kids.”
Having a foundation in reading is especially important to student confidence and success, Gaughan said.
“Kids are forming ideas about their own self-esteem and what they think about themselves — ‘Do I think I am a good reader? Am I a good writer? Am I good at math?’ They are forming those opinions of themselves, and we never want them to have any negative thoughts about themselves about being a reader and a writer. We want to boost that in first grade before they start to struggle. …
“We are all about making a difference in kids’ lives, not only as readers and writers, but just as kids and as people. We want them to be the best they can be. To make them a good reader and a good writer, that is going to enhance the rest of their lives. It is going to make the whole rest of their lives easier, because they will be reading and writing for the rest of their lives.”
Enjoying books and literature enhances your life and makes you a better person, Gaughan said.
“Reading shows all of us about emotions and love and hate and judgment,” she said. “It gives us a window to all of those emotions and just makes our lives better.”
Gaughan’s favorite books when she was a child included the “Clifford the Big Red Dog” series, “Corduroy,” and “Pretzel.”
She read books such as “Poppy,” “Where the Red Fern Grows,” and “Stone Fox” to her children.
Once upon reading “Stone Fox” to a group of second graders, she was so moved by the book, she started to cry.
“It happens to teachers. It’s OK,” she said. “I think it shows your personal side, and I think kids love to see that — that their teacher is a person and they love books too and that is how books can touch us.”
Gaughan taught middle school in Green, Kansas, before she and her family moved to Hays. She taught second and third grade, but then the district opened training for reading teachers in 1997.
“That changed my career,” she said of the reading training. “I absolutely loved teaching reading. I fell in love with that and love what I do.”
Gaughan’s love of books was also inspired by her mother who always had a large library. She read to her and her siblings when they were young and Gaughan’s children when they were little.
Gaughan’s son is now in medical school and continues to be an avid reader and suggests books to his mom.
“He’ll sometimes write notes in the margins and give me his books,” she said, “and that just makes me emotional to read books he has read and he has his notes in the margins. That really touches me.”
The best reading learning is in the context of a story, Gaughan said. She has boxes upon boxes of books in her small office at all levels and on all topics. She tries to get to know her students and find books on topics they are interested in.
“We are always promoting a love of reading and a love of books,” she said.
After 27 years, Gaughan said the children continue to surprise her.
“I have laughed with kids. I have cried with kids. I have celebrated with kids,” she said. “There have been so many kids through the years. What is so amazing to me is that after 27 years when I have kids walk in here and I work with them, it is like every single one of them is unique.
“You would think after 27 years, ‘I would have had a student like this,’ or ‘I’ve had a student do that.’ You would think it would fall into a routine of repeating the past, but it doesn’t. Each single child who walks in here is unique and different and their needs are different, everyone one of them.”
She said being a teacher is a great responsibility.
“You have to love kids. You have to care about them deeply for them to try,” Gaughan said. “They need that. They need to see you as someone they trust and absolutely it makes them a better person overall. This is just a short piece of the long road they are going to be on in life, but we want to make a difference for them if we can.”
Gaughan is also working on her national boards, which she hopes to have completed in the next few years.
Gaughan and the other master teachers will be honored at the state capitol in March. She will also travel to Emporia State University where she will be honored at a luncheon, participate in an educator panel discussion and receive a check for $1,000 from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation.