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BBS Members & Friends,
In addition to making short exercise videos (available to all), we have also been collecting Time Machine Insights (TMI’s) from willing BBS members, Lake Norman YMCA OWLS and any others who wish to participate.
We plan to send these SHORT stories out weekly. I have enlisted the help of my AWESOME Dad (know as “Papa” to his grandchildren) to assist in our efforts to communicate in as many ways as possible. We plan to continue to socially connect AND yet be physically distant. Here are a few little known facts about Ken Gepfert.
My Dad, has been a reporter and editor since almost childhood in southern California. Starting with his own neighborhood newspapers, he worked at successively larger papers in 12 cities across the country and in Europe, including the Los Angeles Times, Charlotte Observer and Wall Street Journal. He’s a graduate of top journalism schools in Missouri and Texas. Since his retirement from newspapering, he helps various organizations tell their stories through public relations – and his three daughters (I’m his oldest!) and four grandchildren whenever they ask for writing and editing advice.
Here goes………
Making a Difference
Susie Sutton
After 20+ years of teaching 7th grade Life Science at an upper middle class community where most students made excellent grades, my husband and I moved to Ohio. Our daughter had just begun college so I needed to continue to work for a few more years. The only job available was as a Biology teacher at Newark High School in Newark, OH. This school was located in a lower middle class community.
Basically, I left my sweet 7th graders who loved learning for a group of high schoolers who didn’t really want to learn anything.
On my first day on the job, a junior who was in my sophomore class had his head down on his desk. When I asked him to sit up, his quick reply was, “Why the shit should you care if I sit up……. It’s my grade.”
I was mortified.
That first year I did not miss a single day of work because if I did, I thought I may never go back.
However, by the end of the year, I adjusted to a “new normal.” The next four and final years of my 34-year teaching career were the most rewarding for me and maybe the most impactful for my students.
I ended up loving teaching those children who needed me in their lives. And I believe I made a difference.
Consider the rest of the story about Ryan, the boy with his head down on the desk that first day.
On my way to the principal’s office to make the discipline report, I was telling another teacher about Ryan and his comment. She told me that Ryan was going through a rough time because the week before his mother left the family for another woman. With that I turned around, didn’t turn in the report, found out when he had study hall, took him aside and suggested we start our relationship anew.
I’m proud to say Ryan turned out to be one of my best students. There’s ALWAYS another side to every story!
Yours in Health AND Newsworthy news,
Gepfert and Gepfert
#girlboss #mydadistheBEST #nevertoolatetocontribute
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