Teacher makes a difference!

They get to know Miss Bumpas even before kindergarten starts
By Jane Roberts (Contact), Memphis Commercial AppealMonday, August 11, 2008
For the tens of thousands of Memphis kids who went to bed with night-before jitters, the 20 in Vicki Bumpas' kindergarten class offer a calming counterpoint.
What can be so hard about learning numbers and letters when you've already spent time curled up on your new teacher's lap?
Every single face in Bumpas' Shannon Elementary classroom is familiar this morning. So are all the faces at home, plus the dog, the cat and maybe the next-door neighbor, too.

Shannon kindergarten teacher Vicki Bumpas chats with Alease Simmons and her great-grandmother Bertha Minor. Bumpas says visits to her students' families pays dividends. Matthew Craig The Commercial Appeal:
What about school are you most looking forward to?
Seeing friends
Learning new things
Sports and after-school activities
And so for the 37 years she's taught in Tennessee public schools, she's spent not only the week before school making home visits, but most of the others, too, dropping in sometimes at mealtime, knowing full well the table will soon include a place for her.
"Yes, I eat meals with my families, and they eat at my house, too," she says.
The visits include talk about her goals for the year and what the families want for their children.
With the wisdom of a woman who's received thousands of pucker-lipped kisses and an equal number of neck hugs, Bumpas explains:
"They all want the same thing. I don't care where you are, everyone loves their children equally."
With her listening ears on, she hears hopes and worries, in houses made of clapboard or brick, along streets where men huddle around cars on jacks or where the term "neighborhood school" means neighborhood anchor.
Bertha Minor's children and a good many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren have attended Shannon. Little 5-year-old Alease Simmons is there today for the first day of her school career.
As she snuggled up to Bumpas Friday afternoon on her great-grandmother's cream-upholstered antique settee, there was no reason to think she'd given the pending change in her life any more thought than what socks she would wear.
The reason, she said, in her perfect "Yes, ma'am" voice, is that she already knows Miss Bumpas.
She expects fewer first-day tears in her class than in others "because the parents have been talking about me. They've been saying, 'She came to see you. Remember?' "
It matters, says Tisha White, principal at Shannon, who says Bumpas' students are often among the school's high-achievers.
Bumpas was the school's Teacher of the Year in 2008, partly for her zeal for teaching and partly for the rapport she builds with families.
"Her parents are always happy with her," White said. "A lot of teachers have a great rapport with parents, but Miss Bumpas works hard to make sure she knows the whole family. When the child comes to school, there's no barrier to learning."
Frankly, the hours of volunteer visiting also reduce job stress, Bumpas says.
"I don't have to worry about parents being upset or question what I am doing. I get as much reward from them as they do from me, trust me."
Of course, she is aware of the budget cuts in the district that threaten jobs and resources.
"I don't worry about budgets," Bumpas said. "If they give money, I spend it, if they don't, I spend my own money."
But the economy has affected her own family finances, which means she's taken a second job after school and is doing her visiting now before class.
"I just beat on the door about 15 minutes to seven to get them up. Nobody cares."
-- Jane Roberts: 529-2512