"In fourth grade, I couldn't spell my name or read. They said, 'She'll catch up.' I seemed to never catch up no matter what I did,"
Now, in 2004, she's been nominated as Teacher of the Year in Cherokee County, Georgia.
Cherokee County teacher of the year Wendy Goppelt started to hate school when she was in third grade. For many of her early years, she struggled with dyslexia and dysgraphia — though no one knew it. By third grade, she was sent to special education classes where she continued to flounder without a good diagnosis. "In fourth grade, I couldn't spell my name or read. They said, 'She'll catch up.' I seemed to never catch up no matter what I did," Goppelt recalled.
In middle school, she was placed in special education and gifted classes but neither approach helped. Frustrated, she dropped out of school at age 16.
But times have changed. The 33-year-old Woodstock resident has been teaching elementary students for nine years — mostly at Woodstock Elementary. She has earned her master's degree in adolescent education and, every day, she hopes to catch and help kids who struggle in school the way she did.
On a recent school day, Goppelt explained the country and culture of Russia to her sixth-graders. They discussed the tundra, the population and the school system. She read aloud to the class without error or difficulty. It was impossible to know she had dealt with dyslexia most of her life.
Dyslexia is the inability to learn, or pronounced difficulty in learning, to read or spell, despite otherwise normal intellectual functions. Primary symptoms include extremely poor reading skills owing to no apparent cause, a tendency to read and write words and letters in reversed sequences, similar reversals of words and letters in the person's speech, and illegible handwriting.
Goppelt started teaching younger students, but has since moved to sixth-graders. "I like middle-school kids. I like their attitude and the way they think and learn," she said. Goppelt said many middle-school kids either hate or love science, and that gives her a challenge.
After dropping out of high school, Goppelt eventually returned to finish. She started community college at 19 and was forced to take remedial classes for the first 1 1/2 years.
More than five years later, she graduated with her bachelor's degree in early childhood education from Kennesaw State University. "I did early education because I was scared. They were little kids and they'd think I was smart," Goppelt said, laughing.
She first decided to walk down the teaching path in an effort to right her past."It was so difficult for me. I didn't want that to happen to someone else," she said. Being at Woodstock Elementary, where there are a number of low-achieving kids who need help, Goppelt said she found her calling.
She groups the children in small units, she calls families. Everyone is assigned a job, and all are expected to help one another.
Principal Mike Vernor said he can't remember one complaint about Goppelt in all her years of teaching, and that's rare even for the best teachers. "The children love her and she's very caring and just wonderful with the students," he said. "The parents love her."
Vernor didn't know until recently about her frustrating education. "She worked incredibly hard on her own to overcome that. She has special insight for those students who may be having a little harder time," he said.
Goppelt said she is even thinking of becoming a literacy coach for Cherokee County teachers. Fellow teacher Mary Ann Webb said Goppelt is always working harder to give her students more than a pencil and paper education. She demands oral and visual presentations and other hands-on activities.
Sixth-grader Stephanie Elliott said Goppelt is a good teacher because "she's funny and thinks of good stuff to do." County teachers of the year go on to compete for Georgia teacher of the year. Finalists will be announced in January and the winner is chosen in March.
I wonder what motivated her to go back to education, and to stick with it.
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