Addison to retire from Lincoln after 27 years teaching

After 31 years of sharing knowledge with youth, Brenda Addison, a fifth grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary decided it was time to retire.

She has been teaching with the district for 27 years. Before coming to El Dorado, she taught in Hamilton for four years.

After moving here, she planned to substitute teach the first year, but she ended up being hired at Skelly Elementary the day before school started to teach a combined fifth-sixth grade class.

After one year at Skelly, Addison moved to Jefferson, where she taught for 21 years. Then with the restructuring, she was moved to Lincoln five years ago.

“When I did my resignation letter, I said this is the best hardest job in the world,” she said. “I love teaching. The job takes time, dedication, love of learning and love of children to hang in there. I truly feel that if you’re lucky enough to work in a school situation, you’re lucky enough to be around the best people.”

She said there is a lot of cooperation and support within the building.

“You have to work together because of these children,” Addison said.

As for changes in students, she said it hasn’t been the kids so much as the rest of the world that has changed.

“The priorities of the community have changed and kidsmirror that,” she said.
Of course, she too has seen the typical changes such as when she started teaching there weren’t computers in every classroom, and now most kids even have one at home.

There also is the testing.

“I guess the big emphasis that has changed is the amount of testing we do,” she said. “A lot of what we do is based on the state test.”

“ Even testing has changed,” she added. “The days of the bubble sheets are gone.”
But other things continue to remain the same.

“The ways you have to get kids ready [for the world], like work ethic, you have to stick with tried and true methods before they set off,” she said.

Her hope is for kids to be successful when they get to middle school and know how to organize things themselves and be attentive.

One thing she is proud of here is the Just Say No program, with which she has been involved for about 15 years. She was one of the teachers involved with it from the start.
She also has begun to see children of those she taught when she first started.

“There is a little girl in the fourth grade, I had her mother as a student over at Jefferson,” she said. “It’s very rewarding to see them grow to their potential.”

One thing all kids in her classroom learn is that one word not allowed her class is “bored.”

“Being bored is a choice in life,” she said, adding that teaching is never boring. “Every day is different.

“This is such a worthwhile career. It’s like a life calling. It’s really what I love to do.”
Because of her love of teaching, Addison said she is not really leaving teaching after she retires.

She will be moving to Frisco, Texas, where one of her daughters and granddaughters is living.

She hopes to do some substitute teaching there, as well as attend lots of soccer games and school functions, “all those things you miss out on if you live too far away.”

She also has another daughter and two other granddaughters, which she will be visiting in Florida.

Of course, she will miss El Dorado.

“I just have enjoyed being here,” she said.