By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
VICTORIA — Shelly Huser, a 22-year veteran teacher, learned firsthand how hurtful bullying can be.
Her brother, Ross, is physically and developmentally disabled. He was bullied when they were kids. She remembers the uncomfortable stares, the things people would say.
“The ‘retard’ word still makes me cringe when I hear it,” she said.
Huser, 48, shares that story with her fifth-graders on their first day with her at Victoria Elementary School in hopes they will learn to be kind to each other. She has an all-star board with pictures of her family on it. Her parents also used to bring her brother to games at the school, so many of the kids have been able to meet him.
“You don’t know what other people are going through,” she said.
It was this core of kindness and caring that earned Huser this month’s Hays Post Teacher of the Month award.
She was nominated by Shauna Chance. Both of her sons have been in Huser’s class.
“Ms. Huser is an amazing teacher,” Chance wrote in her nomination. “She has been part of the Victoria Elementary School that went above and beyond to care for the children in need of extra attention. … She makes learning fun and memorable. She is patient and supportive. My son tells me every day how amazing of a teacher she is. She makes each kid in class feel special.”
Huser has been at Victoria for 16 years, and also taught for a time at Otis-Bison.
Her fourth-grade teacher — Mildred Hladek at WaKeeney Elementary School — inspired her to be a teacher.
“She had baskets of extra papers on her windowsill, and we could take them if we wanted to. I would take those papers home, and my poor brother had to be my student. I had a classroom, and he would be my student. From that time on, that is what I wanted to do. I love it. I can’t imagine doing anything different.”
However, Huser almost left the profession after student teaching for a kindergarten class.
“When I did my kindergarten student teaching, I thought, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ Because they couldn’t cut, they couldn’t hold pencils, they couldn’t do things. I think I went home everyday and cried and thought, ‘What have I done? I have wasted four years of my life, and I don’t want to do this.’ ”
She was able to student teach a fourth-grade class during inter-term, and she realized that was the student level with which she really wanted to work.
Her fifth-graders are on the cusp of junior high, and Huser said she really enjoys seeing the children grow during her year with them.
“They come in dependent on me, but they leave independent, and I like that whole transition where they are able to figure things out on their own,” she said.
Huser’s two big words for her class are expectation and accountability.
“I am going to expect you to do it, and then I’m going to hold you accountable to get it done,” she said.
When her students come into the fifth-grade, they sign a job contract that includes Huser’s expectations of them. They have time-card pay. If they do their job, they get time outside to play.
Her favorite aspect of teaching is the “ah-ha” moment.
“I think it is probably when the lightbulb comes on for kiddos when they really get it — whatever I am teaching or some kind of skill. That is probably the most fun, when they finally figure it out and are excited about that,” she said.
Huser covers many subjects in her classroom, but one of her favorites is social studies. The students study Native Americans, explorers, the American Colonies and the Revolutionary War.
Huser tries to give the students hands-on learning activities. They kids do explorer talk shows, a Revolutionary War ABC book and make brochures to convince people to move to the Colonies.
“I feel I try to get them back into that time and put themselves there,” she said. “I think that helps them understand it more.”
Huser said she struggled with the subject when she was an elementary student. She was very nervous about reading aloud in class. Instead of listening to the other students, she focused on only her text.
“As I got into high school, I really had to study and work hard because it didn’t come very easy for me,” she said. “I think that helps kids too, because I struggled with things, so I am able to help them if they have those problems.”
Huser recently resigned as the Victoria Junior High volleyball coach after 16 years. Her record was 132-52. Her team won the CPL tournament this year and placed in the top three nine of the 16 years.
“It was not necessarily about winning,” she said. “We did win a lot because of the talent. It was the teamwork part of things. Kids got along. Even when they weren’t friends off the court, they got along on the court. We stress that and being coachable and having a good attitude.”
Huser also enjoyed being able to coach her own daughters. Kristen, 23, is now the Victoria High School girls basketball coach. Kristen is coaching Huser’s youngest daughter, who is a 15-year-old freshman. She had all three of her children in class.
“How many moms get to do that?” she said.
Although it was a very difficult decision to leave coaching, Huser said she feels she made the right choice. Kristen is expecting a child, and Huser said she looks forward to being a grandma in April.
Over her career, she said teaching has changed.
“Kids have changed, and times have changed,” she said. “I feel like anymore I am still teaching the regular subjects, but there are a whole lot of life skills that I think teachers are doing more of. My theme in here is humble and kind. I fell like we are spending more time on those kind of things maybe more than math and reading.”
Every day, Huser has an MVP that helps lead the class. The MVP holds the door for the class as they go to assembly each morning. The students are supposed to say “thank you.”
“They’ll count and tell be, ‘Ms. Huser, I got 15 thank yous,'” she said. “I think it is those little things. That, again, is holding each other accountable.”