Crumrine ready for R&R

Retired special education teacher Pat Crumrine just returned from Hawaii and she sees more trips to the islands in her future. She’s also looking forward to taking a few more trips to Alaska. The recently retired teacher taught in the Lovell school system her entire career, which spanned a period of about 35 years. Her interview with the principal in Lovell school was her very first out of college and she stayed with the school system her entire career.[caption id="attachment_1022" align="alignright" width="190" caption="Retired teacher Pat Crumrine is enjoying a little rest and relaxation during her retirement."][/caption]“I went to my first interview and got my first job right out of college,” said Crumrine. “I feel very spoiled telling people that.”She started off teaching second grade and later switched to fourth grade. With her Master’s Degree in Literacy it was only natural that she teach literacy under the Title I program. In the last five years of her career she was asked to teach special education courses at the middle school level, which she hesitated to do at first because she had been out of college for so long. Later, she admitted that she “loved it.”“Those kids just wrap their arms around your heart and everything I did, I did for those kids,” said Crumrine.“Special Ed was what I wanted to get into when I first got into teaching, but it was still hard to get into teaching it back in 1976 even having that double major,” explained Crumrine.Although Crumrine is truly enjoying her time off she is planning to do a little substitute teaching and is thinking about working with older students who are studying for their GEDs.As far as her retirement is concerned Crumrine says it hasn’t “sunk in yet” and she still feels like she’s on summer vacation. “It probably won’t sink in until sometime in August, after school starts,” said Crumrine.She continued, “I loved all the change in my career because each one was a challenge, but it was finally time to stop and spend more time with my grandkids.”By Patti Carpenter