First Grade Memories

by Amy Kolb Noyes

Next month, Hyde Park Elementary School first grade teacher Joan Bradley
will retire after 38 years of teaching. Her friends and former students
are invited to an open house to share their first grade memories of Mrs.
Bradley's classroom. The open house will be held Sunday, June 6, from 2
to 4 p.m., at the HPES gym.
The News & Citizen visited Mrs. Bradley's classroom last week, on the
158th day of school, in Mrs. Bradley's 37th year teaching in Hyde Park.
Mrs. Bradley taught her first year of school in Bakersfield, a fairly
long commute from her home in Johnson. She faced a decision to take a
job in either Hyde Park or Jeffersonville for her second year of
teaching. The commute was about the same to each school. She chose Hyde
Park, and is glad she did.
"It's been like a family," Mrs. Bradley commented. "It's my life. This
is a big change for me."
Mrs. Bradley still has doubts about retiring. Although she said she
never anticipated spending this many years teaching, she is anxious
about the major life change. Her husband Paul has been retired for three
years already.
Mrs. Bradley is a self-described "very busy person." Between her two
young grandchildren, working in the yard of her Morristown home, and her
promise to come back to Hyde Park as a substitute teacher next year, she
is not likely to be slowing down any time soon.
Teaching has changed a lot since Mrs. Bradley first started in the
profession. She said teachers have much more help than they used to,
between classroom aides and other teachers taking on specialty subjects.
"It used to be that we had to do everything," Mrs. Bradley explained.
She said classroom teachers taught the basics, as well as extras like
art, music and physical education.
The number of children in a class has also gone down since 1966. While
Mrs. Bradley now has 15 first graders in her class, she recalls having
33 students in her first classroom. Although she said she is fortunate
to have involved parents and grandparents in her classroom, Mrs. Bradley
said there was a lot more parent involvement 30 years ago when families
typically had only one parent working.
All in all, Mrs. Bradley said, "It's been a good life."
She said her real reward is watching her students learn and grow.