CHARLOTTESVILLE — More than a decade ago, Evelyn Grissom was looking to get back into teaching. She had an education degree from Ball State University and taught at private schools before taking time off to be a stay-at-home mom, but now that her kids were older, she wanted to return to working.
“A neighbor suggested I look into Eastern Hancock,” Grissom said. “She said it would be a good fit, and it certainly has been.”
Now, after spending 14 years at EH, Grissom is retiring from her position as a kindergarten teacher. Grissom taught Eastern Hancock’s youngest students for most of her career at the corporation, along with a few years as a third-grade teacher.
Grissom said one of her biggest goals as a kindergarten teacher is to help kids get used to spending a full day at school and have a positive experience with learning as the foundation for their education going forward. She spends a lot of time on character education, she said, and tries to make kindergarten as enjoyable as possible.
Full-time kindergarten requires a lot of energy, both from students and their teacher.
“I am tired by the end of the day just as much as they are,” Grissom said.
Although her own children attended other Hancock County schools, Grissom said she never thought about moving on from EH, the county’s smallest school district. She loved the family atmosphere and that everyone in the school system knew each other.
Like many teachers, Grissom had an unusually challenging year in 2020. When she was able to return to her classroom and see her students in person again after spending months doing virtual instruction during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was relieved, she said. Trying to keep 17 kindergartners on task during virtual school was no easy task.
“Technology is not my strong suit,” she said. “I think the kids were better with the technology than I was.”
Grissom said she’s enjoyed many things about being a kindergarten teacher: She loves helping kids learn to read, she said, and she has a great relationship with EH’s four other kindergarten teachers. She also enjoys keeping in touch with her former students and seeing them progress through their education.
Eastern Hancock Elementary School Principal Amanda Pyle remembers working with Grissom as an elementary special education teacher. She said Grissom has “all the traits you need in a kindergarten teacher.”
“She’s just a very kind, very patient, very compassionate person,” Pyle said.