Past struggle drives passion for teaching

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August 20, 2013 - 12:00 AM

“What is this? What is it worth?” Jalna Hartsook asked her students, as she held a quarter between thumb and index finger.
An attentive little girl thought just a second or two before blurting out, “A quarter,” and that it was worth 25 cents.
Hartsook, in just her third day as a special education instructor at McKinley Elementary School, smiled approvingly.
“You’re right,” she exclaimed.

HARTSOOK, 25, has had a passion for teaching, particularly those with special needs, since she dealt with a speech impairment of her own as a child growing up in Emporia.
“I saw how it affected my life when I had to be pulled out of class” to do exercises to overcome her problems, Hartsook said. “Ever since, that’s been my goal, to help students who have special needs.”
After graduating from Emporia High School, Hartsook majored in elementary education at Emporia State University, student teaching in Emporia and nearby Americus. She earned a bachelor’s degree in 2010.
From there, her plan was to move to Manhattan to teach as well as enjoy the university setting as only a twenty-something could do. The end goal was to return to ESU in a few years’ time to pursue a master’s degree in special education.
The teaching job didn’t materialize in Manhattan. Instead, she worked in a retail shop that sold Kansas State University apparel.
With some money set aside, she returned to Emporia and enrolled in a master’s program, which she intends to complete by May.
Meanwhile, a job opened in the ANW Cooperative.
“I applied on kind of a whim, was offered a job and took it,” Hartsook said. “I have no family,” other than parents, “and the opportunity was here.”
When fall semester classes commenced in Iola last Thursday Hartsook found herself in the special education resource room at McKinley School.
While three days aren’t enough to form too firm of an opinion, it seems an auspicious beginning, Hartsook said. Her colleagues are congenial as are the townsfolk she has met. And she and her pet Corgi, Gizzmo, have settled in, having lived in Iola since July.
“It has been an adjustment,” Hartsook admitted of living in Iola, compared to the larger university towns of Manhattan and even Emporia, which provide more social life for young folks and a wider selection of amenities.
“I like to cook, although it’s a little hard to cook for one,” she said, noting she is strict about not letting her dog, just 15 months old and little more than a pup, partake of “human” food, a no-no in the pet world.
She also likes to play the piano and spends spare time scrapbooking.

HARTSOOK HAS 16 students designated for assistance with reading and math. Assessments from time to time also will determine when a student is ready to spend less time with individual help and more with classmates.
“I have anywhere from one to six students at a time in the resource room,” from kindergarten through third grade, Hartsook said.
When they return to classrooms some are assisted further by paraprofessionals.
An advantage the young students have is a large interactive Smart Board, which permits them to complete lessons hands-on with Hartsook’s assistance, rather than doing the work with paper and pencil.
Hartsook is a fan of the computerized Smart Board, having worked with the teacher’s aid when she was student-teaching.

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