Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a teacher who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a man or woman and a teacher. Above all, the Teacher of the Month is dedicated to his or her students. Rich or poor, famous or not, he or she shines as an example of what teaching is all about.

Our choice for December is Kathy Bouchard, a teacher at Mark Bills Middle School in Peoria, Ill.!

If you ask Kathy Bouchard about her accomplishments as a teacher, she does not talk about teaching awards, certificates, her most shining moments or anything she has done. Instead, she talks of her students and says every single one of her students is an accomplishment themselves.

"Each one has presented me with some sort of learning experience as a teacher," says Bouchard, a seventh and eighth grade teacher at Mark Bills Middle School in Peoria, Ill. "Allowing them to teach me and push me as a teacher is an accomplishment." Bouchard has been a teacher for nine years, seven of those spent at Mark Bills Middle School teaching language arts, literature and Spanish.

Staying Active at School
According to principal Robert Bethel, Bouchard has many strengths that make her a tremendous asset to the school, and she has consistently done more than her fair share in contributing to their overall learning community.

Bethel is not shy in boasting all of Bouchard's activities: school improvement planning committee, strategic planning committee, director of gifted education, teacher liaison for the parent/teacher club, systems operator and Webmaster for the school's computer lab, coordinator of the district's young authors program. Bouchard also designed a sixth grade multicultural night that showcased a seven-week student research project that was extremely successful.

"She also is one of my acting principals, further demonstrating that she possesses strong leadership skills," says Bethel. "Kathy consistently demonstrates a high degree of cooperation, support and professionalism to the students, parents and teachers of our school. It is easy to see that she is a valuable asset to our school and to our district."

For the Kids
Kim Lunsford of Peoria, Ill., used to work alongside Bouchard, and she says Bouchard embodies the ideals of a wonderful teacher. Walking into Bouchard's classroom gives the feeling that something good is happening there, Lunsford says, and that something is learning.

"She lives for her kids," says Lunsford. "I have watched her teach and seen the sparkle in her eyes when her kids get the point. She loves her students and her job."

Bethel agrees that Bouchard has developed an excellent rapport with her students due to her fairness, honesty, high expectations, trust and encouragement. He says that she possesses a caring attitude and a desire for her students to succeed.

"Middle school students are experts at detecting whether or not a teacher genuinely cares about their success and well-being, and Kathy does," says Bethel. "She possesses many traits that make her stand out as an excellent teacher. As an administrator, I admire her desire to continue to learn new teaching strategies to keep all students interested and engaged in the learning process."

This Is Cool!
When asking Bouchard what is unique or fun about her teaching style, she turns to her students and asks them what they like about her classes. They answer enthusiastically: "You make learning fun!" and "You make us laugh!" and "You tell us stories about how bad of a kid you used to be!"

They particularly like the blue head named Shurley in Bouchard's classroom. Shurley is part of Bouchard's grammar program. Using a blue head as a symbol helped to create interest, says Bouchard. It became such a part of the everyday routine that she and the students gave Shurley a birthday party and played grammar games.

Her favorite part of the day is any time she gets to share information one on one with a student, because making an individual connection is the best in her opinion. When it comes to teaching in general, she has a lot of favorites, but making any kind of breakthrough with a student is the ultimate reward for her career.

"When I get a hug – yes, seventh graders still do that – or hear things like 'That was fun!', 'This is cool!', 'Thank you!' or 'Can we do that again?', it warms my heart and makes me remember why I became a teacher to begin with," says Bouchard.

The Keys to Her Success
Bouchard says that what is key to her teaching career is how her principal and other faculty members support her and how the parents are involved and care about the school as much as she does. This support makes the job easier, she says.

"I love that the staff and parents share the same expectations for our students, and our students strive to meet those expectations," she says. "I love the fact that Mark Bills Middle School can benefit from having very talented teachers and parents share their expertise so generously through art, music, technology, sports and academics."

The other key to her success as a teacher is her ability to be flexible. Because things change on a minute-to-minute basis in the school, she and the other teachers need to be able to go with the flow and be flexible. Those changes can be something as simple as a discipline problem to a change in scheduling and teaching duties. Curriculum can also change in a matter of a week, depending on the issues at hand.

"As always, teachers need to be patient and have understanding," she says. "But they also need to understand that school is NOT the way it used to be when all of us were students, no matter how recent that may have been. It has changed so much in the last three or four years. It's amazing! Teachers also need to have the ability to evaluate themselves and be ready to make adjustments to whatever needs to happen in the classroom. It's part of the job."

According to Bouchard, flexibility is one of the important characteristics that a teacher needs to have these days when it comes to the school environment and the students themselves.

"If you can't be flexible to what your students' needs are, then you won't be as effective," she says. "Not every student is the same, even from day to day, so being rigid about everything defeats the purpose of being in the classroom. It just turns people off to learning in general. There are exceptions to every situation, even though it is sometimes inconvenient!"

Bethel says that Bouchard possesses the patience, desire and caring attitude needed to successfully work with the many challenges of middle school students. "She is well liked and respected by the students and by their parents or guardians," he says. "We are very fortunate to have her teaching at Mark Bills Middle School."

Always a Challenge
Bouchard always wanted to be a teacher – sort of. When she was little, she'd play school for hours, but as she got older, she wanted to be a famous star on stage. But what drew her to teaching was the kids.

"One of the main reasons I became a teacher was because I love to be around kids," she says. "As I got into my education classes, I found that I enjoyed middle school ages the most because of the drama and the turmoil that they go through in the growing up process. It's exciting to watch such significant changes in a person."

Teaching can be a challenge and students may be challenging for a moment or two, but Bouchard truly believes that her biggest challenge lies within herself, making sure that she is doing all she can do for each student. She says it's a struggle to find the time, patience and resources sometimes and still be able to live her life the way she wants to and that there are times when she considered leaving teaching in search of something better or less frustrating.

"When I begin to think about that, something happens to remind me why I became a teacher in the first place," she says. For instance, last year she was struggling with staying in the teaching profession when she received a few e-mails out of the blue. "Two of them arrived on the same day, from two completely different students," she says. "Those e-mails that I received over a week's time all expressed their thanks for being 'one of those teachers I will never forget.' They touched me in a way that I have never felt before, and right then, I realized that I was in the right profession. I would have never guessed that I had impacted those particular students in any way. Receiving this award has also made me feel so good about being a teacher! It's always the little things that happen that make you feel good about the profession."

Want to see more?

• Middle School Blues: Helping Your Preteen Face the Challenges of Junior High
• The Junior High Years: Getting – and Staying – Involved With Your Child's School
• Read about past Teachers of the Month here!
• Talk about it!