GOOD HOPE, Ala. – After working as a teacher for 45 years at three different schools, Pam Couch is calling it a career. Couch started her teaching career at Trinity Christian Academy in Oxford and was there for 15 years before moving to Good Hope. She taught at Good Hope for 22 years and spent the last seven years of her career teaching fast-track at Wallace State Community College. As a young woman, she went back-and-forth between being a nurse or a teacher, and the Lord was there to help guide her down the right path. She learned so much during her teaching career.
“When I was growing up, it was always, ‘I’m either going to be a nurse or a teacher’. I went back-and-forth so many times, and so, I just knew, whatever I did, it was just whatever the Lord wanted me to do. I love teaching, so that’s what I chose to do, and I love it,” Couch said. “Each school is totally different. Each school you go to, you get different students that are there. Some will be there, and some won’t. You have different students there for different reasons. You get the education in school, but that doesn’t actually help you out. It helps you prepare, then until you actually get there and start teaching, then you really learn. You really learn what you have to do.”
Pam leaned on one of her good friends early on in her career and learned as much as she could from other great teachers.
“When I first started, I was doing music instead of English. I first had a choir of 50 kids that were in 7th-12th grade, and if it hadn’t been for a very good friend of mine there, Lynn Newton, I probably wouldn’t have made it very far. She really helped me, because that music class was the kind of class that they just put them in there. If they didn’t have anywhere to put them in, they put them in choir at that time. I struggled my first year, but in my first year, I interviewed for the job, got it, found a place to live that weekend, and school started Wednesday. That first job was like a quick job, and then I came to Good Hope after that,” Couch said. “You have to be flexible. Everything’s different, and so, one place is different than the other place. Students are different, and you just have to do your best to be flexible and meet the needs of the students. I love teaching, and I love teaching the students, so you have to meet them where they are, and go from there.”
She had an enormous impact on so many students’ lives during her career and made so many great teaching memories.
“I feel that my teaching was a calling, and the Lord put that in my life. It was something He called me to do, and if I could just help one of them, then I’ve reached that one. Of course, you want to reach all of them. I pray that maybe my life, in some way, was a witness to them, and I was able to help them in some way, not only just academically, but also, in their life later on too,” Couch said. “It’s really neat when you’re talking to a student and, all of a sudden, you see that light bulb come on, and they’re like, ‘I finally get it’, no matter what you do. I remember having students that I literally sat on the bench with outside my room and read to them when we were doing that Accelerating Reader that was part of our curriculum. They had to do that, and it was pass or fail. I would sit out there and read to them. With some students, it’s just a joy to have those students that come back to you and tell you how you touched their life or how you helped them through a difficult situation. It’s really special to be able to do that and to have that calling to do that. It was a student that I had one time, and he got into trouble. He was in trouble in my classroom, and he was doing some things. I remember walking him to the office, and as I was doing that, I told him, ‘You’re better than this. You can do better than this’. I never thought anything about it, but to this day, that student tells me that particular point, because I took an interest in him, and because I said that to him, that’s something that changed his entire life. He’s now very successful. He’s a pastor up north, and he tells me that all the time. I have another student that’s in Asia, who calls me all the time, and wishes me happy birthday. He’s a writer now and a publisher. You just think of how one little word, as we go through life, just one little word that we say to someone in encouragement or just speaking to them, because to this day, he remembers that. He said, ‘You told me that on the way to the office, and it changed my life from then on’.”
Couch added,
“I’ve had students that I’ve taught all of a family of students, but then, I’ve also come back and taught some of their children after that. When you stop and think about that, that you’ve had that much impact on families and on the people, I take that very seriously, because that really is a heavy thing to know that something you say can change the direction of a person’s life. You think of all the students that I’ve had in the past, and when one comes back and tells you that, even if it’s just one, that’s worth it to know that you touched their life in some way. You want to do it the right way. You don’t want to say the wrong thing, but I think it’s important to encourage them. Teaching is such a blessing, and if you don’t love it and you’re not called to do it, then it’s not a job you need to do.”
She will remember so many things about her teaching career and will miss a lot of people that she spent a lot of time working with.
“I’ve taught with some fantastic principals, and I’ve had colleagues that have been wonderful that have helped me out. You can do whatever you want to do. You don’t have to go and be an engineer and all of that stuff. You can also be someone who goes and works with their hands and does those manual things, those day-to-day things. Those are so important, so teaching gives you a mission, something in life that helps you to go on, have a purpose in life, and try to be successful in everything you do,” she said. “I’ll miss my students and being at fast-track. I’ve already talked to some, and they didn’t know that I wasn’t going to come back, but I’ll miss seeing students every day. I’ll miss my fellow colleagues that I teach with, but just starting that day out, just starting it out seeing those students, seeing their faces and all, and that’s just been a joy of my life to be able to do that. The Lord has blessed me with 45 years of being able to do that.”
Pam shared some advice with anyone that might want to become a teacher themselves one day.
“The most important thing is to pray for their students and to love their students. Look at each student individually, because each student has their own need, and to do their best to meet those needs the best they can and be an encourager.”
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