KAPS Teacher of the Year Teresa Russett

Being a teacher is harder than being a farmer, in one big respect. As a farmer you get to see your efforts at the end of the growing season, a teacher’s efforts might not be appreciated until years later.

But Katherine Ann Porter’s teacher Teresa Russett has experience in both. And while this year she was in the classroom instead of the field, it still proved to be fruitful. Not only has she been named the KAPS Teacher of the Year, she’s a newlywed, too.

Teresa is one outstanding teacher. “I am a special education teacher. I work with all the students. I make sure that our kids that need a level playing field, get that level playing field,” Russett said.

“I knew that there was a hole for special ed certification. I’m pretty good with families and have the ability to listen, motivate and encourage. I have patience. Probably my mother, having had four kids in less than five years, gave this to me. Like my mother saying for the fourth time, ‘Could you please brush your teeth?’ Can you imagine?”

Home was located in numerous places. “I was born at the Air Force Academy. My daddy was in the military. We were stationed at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. We moved every year. It was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, bam. Yeah, we moved a lot when I was a kid,” she said. She graduated high school from Samuel Clemens H.S. in Schertz, Texas. She has three older boys.

“I farmed for lots of years. But with farming, the money isn’t consistent for raising a family. You have good years and you have bad years and it’s just the bad years took such a toll, money wise, as the kids got older. I realized they needed stability. And teaching allows you to work with people, go home and garden in the evenings.” She decided to try teaching.

The Texas State University graduate was then teaching at a different charter school and achieved numerous certifications before arriving at KAPS. At KAPS she has taught numerous subjects such as World Geography, Agriculture and Environmental Systems.

“World History, I taught that a couple times. That’s a blast of a class. Talk about rocking and rolling through time and organizing information for kids. That was a lot of work. But that was fun to teach. And everybody should teach PE one time.”

Teaching the past two years has been a challenge, some in person, some online.

“I’ve made more phone calls than I’ve ever made in my entire life. I am doing tutoring after school two days a week just to say to the kids, ‘How are your assignments going?’ ‘What strategies are working?’ ‘What assignment are you working on?’ ‘Where do we need to put your time?’ ‘Do you need to edit?’ ‘You need to make an appointment with a teacher about a math problem?’ You oversee all the kids and make sure they’re doing well in all their classes.”

She does have a favorite kind of student. “They are the ones that are curious and willing to try. And I’m not talking about success here, because you’re not always going to be the ‘A’ student. But are you still willing to try.”

Her personal life has changed this year, not only as the Teacher of the Year; she’s a newlywed as well.

“I got married in January. I met this great guy (Michael Russett) who’s a fighter pilot… I met him at church. I played the upright bass for the (San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church.) He came to church and sat in the back next to a friend of mine, and basically I ignored him. I said ‘Hello,’ but then I ignored him for eight months. That’s the way to start dating people.”

He started by carrying her music books and progressed to not being ignored. Now they have been married for about five months.

As a farmer or a teacher, growth is important. Teresa has certainly come out of the pandemic with a lot of personal growth in her life, and perhaps more importantly, a lot of growth for her students. That’s what makes her the Teacher of the Year.