Potter science teacher retires from 32 years in public education

POTTER -- Karen Jones has more than 30 years teaching, retiring from Potter-Dix teaching Science and English.

She closed 32 years in the classroom at the end of the Potter-Dix school year.

"I currently do junior high English and Science, and I have a couple high school classes that I watched like when they were doing college classes; proctoring them," Jones said at the last day of school, May 22.

She hasn't always taught in the junior high/middle school years. Her education experience started in an alternative school environment.

"I started out in an alternative school, for three years, which was a great eye-opener and a beginning for teaching. It taught me that whatever you see in the public school can't be as bad as what you see at an alternative school," she said.

She taught 10 years in Kansas before moving to Bridgeport where she taught for 15 years. She taught her last seven years at Potter. She spent most of her time in the middle grades.

"Mainly junior high, but I did do some classes at Bridgeport. My husband just retired from Bridgeport and he taught the upper level sciences: physics, chemistry, etc. And we did some team-teaching, he and I, and I did several years of high school integrated sciences, so with students who had a little bit more difficulty with the regular science classes in addition to the science courses. I do have a Masters in Learning Disabilities so for 10 years in Kansas the focus was on special ed," she said.

She said she is among the teachers who entered education out of concern for the students. She also admits she is fascinated by special education and how the mind works.

Staying in the field for 32 years is about her interest in connecting with students; sometimes academically, sometimes emotionally. 

"You couldn't always relate to them with the educational part, but to let them know you cared about the was the key," she said.

The next chapter for the Joneses is to take time to reset, finish writing a book about her mother, and she wants to spend time reading. Her "take away" after 32 years is the hope of having a lifelong impact on at least one student.