WYOMING, Mich. — Our next Teacher of the Week takes a lot of pride in offering the first classroom experience to many of the kids at Parkview Elementary in Wyoming. She says she’s teaching our future presidents, doctors, and any other profession her students desire.
Her name is Merry McKeown. After her surprise, she said, “I’m blessed beyond words. It’s very touching.”
Parkview Elementary School principal, Brenna Fraser, says she’s usually not very good at surprises.
“We staged a meeting and had some content ready that made sense that she wasn’t too suspicious about,” said Fraser, before holding up crossed fingers saying, “We pulled it off.”
“I honestly had absolutely no idea. So, it was a huge surprise and it’s so great to see the kids excited about school and just to feel all the love,” said McKeown.
She’s been teaching for 30 years with Wyoming Schools and chose the career to help fill a need.
“When I first started into teaching, there was a real shortage of teachers,” she said, adding, “I was a school lover and so many teachers who were really positive lights for me and I felt like that maybe I could be that for someone else, as well.”
Principal Fraser said, “You really can’t put words to an impact – decades of being a devoted employee, staff member, teacher, colleague.”
“Every day is something new and just the reward from the kids and feeling their joy and seeing them learn something that you’ve really been working on – it’s all been really great,” said McKeown.
The classroom is one big family. McKeown treats the students as her own, and she works alongside her sister.
“We work really well together, and she’s been a wonderful para-educator for my classroom,” said McKeown.
Fraser said she’s “so glad that you all are doing this segment and really celebrating all the educators in the area that are working so hard for our future generation.”
She also said, “Merry with her students is wildly passionate about holding high expectations for every single one of her children while also supporting them.”
“It’s a profession that doesn’t get a lot of notice but so important. These kids are going to take care of me someday when I’m old and unable to take care of myself. They could be a president of the United States, they could be a doctor, they can be anything that they choose to be and it’s so important just to have great teachers who really want to inspire kids to do great things with their lives,” said McKeown.
If you have someone you’d like to nominate as our next Teacher of the Week, just text the word “teacher” to 616-559-1310.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Watch 13 ON YOUR SIDE for free on Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and on your phone.