Lissa (Mentzer) Manbeck, new fifth-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School, has a soft spot in her heart to students who need a little extra help.
She was on the receiving end of a little extra help not many years ago.
“I had trouble with my hearing,” and consequently had difficulty learning to read in her early elementary years, Manbeck recalled. “They were going to put me in special education.”
Her mother, Denise Mentzer, a certified teacher, stepped in.
“I was home-schooled third through fifth grades,” Manbeck said.
Meanwhile, medical science helped with hearing problems, including tubes in her ears “that were there until I was 16,” Manbeck said. Her hearing is now crystal clear.
The experience taught Manbeck to be especially attuned to students who may have difficutly learning.
“It helps me feel for kids who are a little slow” in one subject or another, Manbeck continued.
Her home-schooling was so successful that Lissa found herself tutoring classmates by the time she was in seventh grade.
“Helping someone really was an awesome experience,” and didn’t stop with occasional tutoring in middle school.
All three years at Iola High and two at Allen Community College, Lissa volunteered to help with SAFE BASE programs, which quickly made her realize that teaching was in her future. Summers she helped out at Kids Kingdom pre-school.
After ACC, Lissa completed work for a minor in middle school mathematics and a major in elementary education at Pittsburg State University. She was president of two math honors groups at PSU.
Lissa daily instructs her fifth graders in reading, language arts, science, social science and spelling, but when it’s time for math, they troop off to another room for instruction from another teacher.
Not to worry, Lissa allowed. “I love what I do. The kids are great and I couldn’t be happier.”
FIFTH GRADE is a little bit of the end and some of a beginning for students.
Lissa reinforces what they have learned through five previous years of elementary instruction, including kindergarten, and prepares them to move on to sixth grade at the middle school. Also, she has state assessments to consider; the kids must be prepared when test time comes around.
