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Rosemary Dann, a third-grade teacher at Oakland Terrace Elementary School in Silver Spring, was interviewed July 21 at The Gazette.

You were nominated for Voices in Education interview by your mother, who said you, “wanted to become a teacher all her life — and has done it!” Have you always enjoyed working with children?

I grew up with lots of little neighbors and my cousins are all younger than I, so I enjoyed working with them. In high school, I did an internship. I went to Sherwood [High School in Sandy Spring]. In my senior year I only took five classes and spent the afternoons in a kindergarten class at Olney Elementary School. I did that all year, every day.

In college I did the America Reads America Counts program, that’s pretty much how I earned money in college.

They paired us up with struggling kids in Prince George’s County. I tutored math and I even got an award.

In 2002-2003 I was “Mentor of the Year.”

I majored in elementary education with an emphasis on Spanish. That really helps me now where I work because we have a lot of Spanish-speaking children and parents, and it’s like an extra connection I have with them.

I love to teach the kids new words in another language, so sometimes I put a phrase up on the board and I’ll explain what it means or one of the students will explain it.

Do you teach regular education or special education?

I teach third grade now, regular education. Our school has a full inclusion model so the kids with special needs stay in the classroom and we provide the special education services in the class so the kids can stay with their peers.

It really works for our school. Kids learn from each other every day. They learn a lot more than academics, they learn empathy and they learn compassion.

How long have you been teaching?

This will be my seventh year, all at Oakland Terrace. Yes, I’ve been there since I graduated from college.

What do you find is the hardest part of your job?

I guess time management on my part. Meaning, time management so when I get home I have time for myself, for my husband. Teaching can be all-consuming.

In the classroom, [the hardest part] is making sure you are teaching so you meet the needs of all the kids.

Like, you might plan a lesson you think is great and you hit 80 percent of the kids. You still have to reach the other 20 percent.

Kids learn so differently so you have to make sure you hit it a lot of different ways: kids that learn hands on, kids that learn auditorily or visibly, you need to provide the best opportunity for kids to learn what you are trying to teach them.

So what do you think is the best part of your job?

The kids! They make me want to get up and go to work every day. Just working with them every day, they make it worth it.

There is a lot in teaching that makes it worth it, but it all comes down to the kids. That’s why everyone is here.

You have to love this job to do it, it takes a certain dedication. I think there are a lot of jobs you can go to and even do really well but not have passion. But teaching, you need passion. It is exhausting at times. You have to really love it to stick with it.

What do you do in the summer?

This year I haven’t done much, which has been great. Before this I worked summers at camps. I took a couple of classes this summer. I took a life sciences class and I just finished a workshop about collaborative planning with teachers from my school. In August I’m going to take a class in behavior [management] strategies.

What do you wish for your students?

Every year I tell them I love to read, I want to instill a love of reading in them, math too. But I want to instill a sense of confidence in them. We talk a lot about that.

I want to give them life lessons they can take with them so they can [someday] say,”Oh yeah, in third grade ...”

I want them to be great all around. I know that can’t happen in one year but if I can contribute to that, I will have done my job.

The best thing I’ve done so far is to bring a program, Girls on the Run, to our school.

We train the girls for a 5K — 3.1 miles — race, but we partner training for the race with life lessons. The program is for pre-adolescent girls, third, fourth and fifth grades.

We do a 30-minute lesson at the beginning. They learn to handle a bully, how to deal with gossip, knowing their inner beauty, there are so many things, it’s phenomenal.

We have had parents come up to us and say they have seen [their daughters’] confidence change.

I could talk about this all day. This is such a great program, all the changes are positive, you never see negative. It is limited to 15 girls per group, we have three groups and nine coaches. We don’t push the running, it’s about movement, they can walk if they want to walk.

Are there any other little secrets, things you have brought to your school?

One thing, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the kids. I’m really into staff collaboration so I’m the coach of the staff softball team. It’s just a different way to get the staff to come out. It’s a really nice time to bond with your staff, not academically.

Does it help with collaboration?

I think it does because I think people bond in a different way. You get to know people in a way you don’t get to in a school as large as ours. Our school is so large, our kindergarten is not in our building. We have 10 kindergartens, and they are at Sligo Middle School. You would not necessarily see those staff members. Everyone is invited to softball and Girls on the Run. Sports in general are a way to get people together.

If you had one magic power to use in your job, what would that be?

Maybe I would clone myself so I’d have 24 [of me] so the kids would each have one of me and so I would get it all done. All the paperwork, grading, filing, copying, calling home and planning ... my job is several jobs in one. It’s a lot of work, being a teacher, so it would be nice to have those extra hands.

“Voices in Education” is a twice-monthly feature that highlights the men and women who are involved with the education of Montgomery County’s children. To suggest someone you would like to see featured, email Peggy McEwan at pmcewan@gazette.net.