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The Thunderbolt

Timpview's official news site

The Thunderbolt

Timpview's official news site

The Thunderbolt

Retirement in 2020, at the End of an Era

Plague-hollowed+hallways
William Davis
Plague-hollowed hallways

At the close of another year at Timpview, Dave Shelton, Glori Smith, Anne Crosland and other retiring teachers and faculty will be leaving with our graduating class of 2020 and experience their retirement through the numbing quiet of quarantine.

Crosland’s bittersweet ending

When asked in an interview how she feels about the strange ending coronavirus has brought to her career, Mrs. Crosland, the loving math teacher remarked, “It’s kind of a mixed bag. I remember walking into school with David Shelton sometime around March 13th or something like that, and I believe the teachers were walking into a meeting or getting ready to go online or something, and he said ‘Well, how does it feel to be walking into your last day of school?’ and I said, ‘You really don’t think we’re coming back, huh?’, and he goes ‘Nope, I don’t think we’re coming back.’” Shelton’s words turned out to be prophetic, and Crosland’s last day of school came quicker than she thought.

Mrs. Crosland has spent many years of her life as a T-Bird. When asked just how long she’s been here, she said, “I started teaching in 1986. I graduated from Timpview in 1982, so I actually started at Timpview in 1978. My older sister was in the first graduating class at Timpview, 1978, and she was a cheerleader, and I remember, before Timpview was even built. I remember talking about…‘What are the colors going to be, and what are we going to call the school, and what should we have our mascot be?’ …These surveys went out to everybody in Provo about starting a new school, so I’ve kind of joked that I was here when they laid the first bricks, and I’m leaving when they’re tearing down the first bricks. So I went to school from 1978-1982, and then started back as a teacher in 1986, so I’ve taught for 34 years.” Crosland has been with Timpview for pretty much the school’s entire life.

 

Shelton retires the same way he taught

When asked in an interview over email how his overall experience at Timpview has been, Dave Shelton, the renowned chemistry teacher joked, “Awesome! Torturing teenagers is just indescribably delicious. The kids here are especially susceptible to my meanness because they’ve always been told how special they are. They just didn’t see it coming!” Well known for his iconic personality, Shelton didn’t just teach chemistry in his class. He taught life lessons about hard work and endurance that helped students to better understand where they fit in with the world around them.

Shelton happily recalls, “I was at Timpview for 22 amazing years. I had to work hard the first couple and then I just made the kids work hard for the rest of the time I was there.” Mr. Shelton continues, “Fond memories are too numerous to mention. Made lots of kids cry, beg, and suffer. There’s nothing better than those kinds of memories. I wish I had recorded them over the years. I could fall asleep to those kinds of sounds you know.” It seems that his time spent at the school was as spectacular as it was memorable. He just couldn’t leave our school without taking his unique sense of humor and irreplaceable personality with him.

 

Smith teaching to the end

When asked in an interview over email if there was anything she was going to miss about Timpview, Glori Smith, the selfless government Teacher, expressed, “I will miss building relationships with students and I will miss talking about important things that happen, or have happened, in the world. I have tried to open students’ eyes to problems in our world and perhaps inspire them to think of ways they might make a difference–I will miss that.” Smith truly believed in the importance of her job and the importance of her students, and has worked ceaselessly to help them to see their own value for themselves.

Regarding her teaching career, Mrs. Smith expressed, “One of my college professors referred to teaching as a service profession and another said that we wouldn’t be teaching subjects, but teaching students, that we needed to love the students as much as we loved the subjects we would teach. I was worried about both of those ideas. …Unlike some educators, I didn’t grow up knowing that I was meant to teach–I just hoped it would be a good fit.”

Fortunately, Mrs. Smith had nothing to worry about, because she recalls “From the first day of student teaching I knew I made the right choice. I was energized by the students, felt connections, and love for them, right away…I have spent all 30 years as a Timpview teacher and it has been great—not every minute of course, but overall I have felt appreciated and felt like I was doing important work—turns out that being of service to others is important to me.” Although teaching is a rough job, and teachers don’t always receive the praise and recognition for the hours that they put in, inside and out of school, Mrs. Smith happily gave her service to the school for 30 years.

At the close of her career, Mrs smith offers insight and perspective on how much the school and society we live in has changed since she first began. “Timpview, and society, has changed. When I started teaching the Cold War was still on. I taught Russian language and US history, so the Cold War was very relevant. Also, 30 years ago there was “typing class” and they used fancy IBM Selectric typewriters :-). I was one of maybe three teachers who used a computer program to do grades, on big 8″ floppy discs inserted into my home computer (I don’t think there were any computers at the school). And Timpvew has become much more ethnically diverse: student body, faculty, staff. We were about 99% white back in 1990. That is just a short list of a few positive changes.” Even in an interview about her retirement, Mrs. Smith was teaching about the social and cultural changes that we have experienced in our community. Just like Mr. Shelton, she is heading out, holding onto her signature trademark.

 

Hearts still turned to the students

One thing that all three teachers had in common in their interviews was a focus on their students, rather than themselves, at the close of their careers.

With coronavirus curtailing her career months earlier than expected, Mrs. Smith expressed, “I would never complain about my “ending” because I feel much worse for all of the seniors. I mostly teach seniors, so I know a couple hundred of them pretty well–I have been thinking about missed drama competitions, track, soccer, baseball, softball, and golf seasons, tours, etc. I am the Model U.N. advisor and those students missed two major conferences. So, I do not feel sorry for myself at all.” Though these teachers are experiencing a very similar graduation that our school seniors are, without nearly the same amount of attention, Mrs. Smith’s only sadness is for the students she so greatly loved.

In his interview, Shelton expressed that the thing he was going to miss most about Timpview was “The kids, especially the rude and obnoxious ones.” Though a man of few words who would prefer to joke and laugh with his students rather than get caught up in his own sentiments, it’s rumored by some students that he has a sentimental side that he would never admit to. Perhaps whether that’s true or just another rumor will always be a mystery.

When asked if there was anything she was going to miss about Timpview, Mrs. Crosland said, “Yeah, everything probably. Absolutely by far the number one, um…–Gosh, I didn’t think I’d get emotional about this–For sure I’m gonna miss the relationships that I had with the kids. There’s no question that that’s been the best part of my job. And of course you know, I’ll miss my colleagues. You’re just gonna miss the people and the people that you work with the most.” For Crosland, it was all about the students.

 

Editor’s note:
These amazing teachers are also retiring, and several more are moving on to other positions. Comment below with your favorite memories of the retiring teachers and we will pass them on as a digital yearbook page.

Pat Gerstner
LaRae Mason
Debi Hutchings

These teachers will also be leaving Timpview, though they are not retiring
Shauna Palmer
Nathalie Lebras
Heather Moulton
Emily Perl
Gavin Grow
Mckindra Camp
Terry Brown

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    Matthew SheetsJun 6, 2022 at 5:42 PM

    Just have to reach out to say thanks to an incredible set of teachers (and to Debi Hutchings!). Grateful for the support and love of such incredible mentors.

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