Stanton Language Arts Teacher Looking Forward to Retirement

Just after her students leave for the day, Sue McGrath organizes desks. Making sure they are in straight rows, she adjusts each one slightly until she is satisfied with their configuration.

“I feel better,” she said before taking a seat at her own desk.

To her left is a copy of George Orwell’s dystopian classic, Animal Farm. And in front of her, piled atop other eighth-grade-reading-level books, is Seedfolks.

At 64, McGrath is ready to retire from her language arts position at Stanton Middle
School.

“I love having time," McGrath said, hummingbird earrings peeking out from her earlobe-length hair. “I love being outside working with flowers.”

From her living room window, McGrath watches bluebirds eat the food and utilize the nesting boxes she provides them. She watches as baby birds hatch and begin to fly.

She enjoys simple things. And other than the traveling that naturally comes with retirement, McGrath’s retirement will be a time for relaxation and, of course, reading.

“I love to read historical fiction, murder mysteries, Jodi Picoult,” she said, not quite knowing where to end this list. “I’ve kind of forgotten some of what I like because I don’t have the time to read, but that’s one of the things I’m going to be doing.”

Right now McGrath has The Loop sitting out and ready to read, but she is lucky if she is able to read two books of her choosing per year due to the amount of literature she must read for her class.

“Some love it and some don’t,” she said of her students’ attitudes toward books.

Over the years, McGrath has found that the students who excel in math and sciences don’t like to read as much as those who do well in other academic subjects. Also, she has found that this group of students enjoys nonfiction rather that fictional stories.

So, for sustained silent reading, during which the students can read a book of their choosing, she recommends they read biographies about people they like.

McGrath never had any trouble finding material to read, even if it was too advanced for her.

“I remember being very little and we would have books,” she said. “My mom and dad would always go to bed and read a book and I would lay down with my book and say I’m reading and it would be upside-down.”

When she was a child, her oldest brother had a copy of Black Beauty. She would look at the pictures and try to read what she could.

“I would read some of it, but not understand some of it,” She said. But “I wouldn’t care.”

Eventually she devoured the entire Black Stallion series.

It was the act of reading that satisfied her. You make your own pictures and draw your own conclusions as opposed to watching movies that give you those pictures and conclusions.

Sitting at her desk, her head rests on the palm of her hand. “I’m very ready,” she said of no longer teaching. “I don’t think I’ll miss it.”