LOCAL HERO Norma Wyman

There was the time the father of one of Norma Wyman's students approached her to tell her his daughter — a high school freshman who had struggled in school — had made the honor roll for the first time thanks to her help. &emsp;&emsp;Or when the adult man she'd met at the public library once a week (the father of another of her students) and had taught to read filled out his first job application. &emsp;&emsp;Then there were the 98 men and women inmates she'd taught at the Cheshire County House of Corrections over 10 years who completed their coursework and received GEDs. &emsp;&emsp;These are only a tiny fragment of stories retired educator Wyman of Spofford can tell about her time teaching. &emsp;&emsp;Wyman was recognized in early June with the Doris Barnes Retired Educator Lifetime Achievement Award, a statewide honor. &emsp;&emsp;"It's for people who continue to teach after retirement," says Wyman. &emsp;&emsp;Although retired from 33 years in the classroom, the 85-year-old is far from retired from teaching. &emsp;&emsp;Since 2015, she has been volunteering at Chesterfield Elementary School with America Reads, a program of Monadnock RSVP Volunteer Center which invites community members to visit classrooms and read storybooks to children with a focus on the school's curriculum ― she has volunteered 1,000 hours (and counting) with America Reads. She hopes to return to the program after it went on hiatus during the pandemic. &emsp;&emsp;In the meantime, she has continued to volunteer at her daughter's daycare center reading to children, which she's done for the past four years: it was her daughter (also a retired educator) who nominated her for the lifetime achievement award. &emsp;&emsp;From 1999 to 2009, the first decade of her retirement, Wyman volunteered at the correctional facility (when it was located in Westmoreland) for three to four hours a day, tutoring inmates working toward a high school equivalency diploma. &emsp;&emsp;Officially, she was there to support individuals with special needs. However, inmates spanning the full spectrum of ability and educational background gathered in her classroom after hearing reports of this visitor who had come to help them earn their degrees. &emsp;&emsp;Before volunteering at the Cheshire County jail, Wyman taught within the Monadnock Regional School District, holding several positions in schools across Cheshire County. She received an undergraduate degree in elementary education from Keene State College and later returned for a master's in special education. In 1967, Mount Caesar hired her to teach 1st grade. Two years later, she became the head of the school's pre-elementary program, called "First-Grader Readiness." &emsp;&emsp;Working with some of the youngest students in the building, Wyman developed a teaching style centered on a profound respect for the way children experience their world. Above all, she believed in engaging a child's organic drive to explore and question. &emsp;&emsp;In her next position as Title I Coordinator for the local school district, Wyman stepped back from classroom teaching to conduct evaluations for students with language disabilities. After a year, she transitioned to a similar role as a learning disabilities specialist, providing evaluations and individualized learning plans for a broader population of students with special needs. Wyman conducted holistic assessments of each student's abilities and limitations, set them customized educational benchmarks, and recommended resources to classroom teachers. Even so, she sometimes felt constrained by the lack of research into special education methods. &emsp;&emsp;Determined to arm herself and her colleagues with the freshest ideas in the field, she attended a conference where Dr. Melvin Levine of Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School presented new tools for evaluating children with learning disabilities. Although the session was intended for pediatricians, Wyman lobbied persistently for a seat and arrived at the hospital as one of two educators in the audience. Back in Cheshire County, she put Levine's strategies into practice; later, looking to share them with other educators, she taught a workshop on the topic at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge. &emsp;&emsp;For the remainder of her career, Wyman returned to the classroom to teach elementary and middle school students with special needs. Applying the same philosophy that had fueled the success of her First-Grader Readiness program years before, she worked to build personal relationships with every young person in her class. &emsp;&emsp;Since accepting her first job at Mount Caesar more than four decades ago, she has often provided free reading lessons for children of all ages on weekends and during summer breaks. &emsp;&emsp;"I love teaching reading — it's fun," says Wyman. "You're working with all these little personalities, and you have to figure out each one; what will work and what won't. It's challenging and enjoyable. My career has been a pleasure; teaching is not a chore." &emsp;&emsp;She cherishes the stories she's collected about so many of her students, like the student who is now one of her friends on Facebook and is now a grandmother; or the 1st-grader she'd taught who had a severe brain disorder. &emsp;&emsp;"He came back to see me when he was in 5th or 6th grade and said, 'Do you remember the time I could count to 10 and everybody clapped?'" she says. "It's the little things like that I reflect on. I appreciate the time I had with these kids." &emsp;&emsp;Others have told her she is the best teacher they've had. &emsp;&emsp;Wyman has been awarded multiple honors recognizing her role as an educator. In 2006, she received the Cheshire County Department of Corrections Award for Dedication and Passion for Rehabilitation Opportunities. In 2016, her volunteer work at Chesterfield Elementary School earned her the SAU 29 Star Award. She has, too, been selected for membership in the Delta Kappa Gamma Honor Society for Women Educators. &emsp;&emsp;She also writes in her spare time and has published two novels: "Felony" in 2015 and "Conspiracy" this year. &emsp;&emsp;Given her now 53 years of working with students, Wyman remains modest. &emsp;&emsp;"I'm good at teaching reading — God gave me that ability," she says, "and I need to give back." &emsp;&emsp;She insists her students have taught her more than she's taught them. &emsp;&emsp;"They've taught me to be patient, kind and understanding, and to go day by day," she says. Nicole S. Colson writes from Swanzey, New Hampshire.