Round Rock Teachers
Round Rock Teachers
Tuesday, 07 August 2007
Dianne Shaver, Math Department Chair, Hopewell Middle School
When Dianne Shaver began teaching, one of her students, a boy named Luis, whose parents were both immigrants, caught her attention.
“Luis would come to school even if he was sick. He enjoyed being there,” Shaver said. “Every year, I look for a Luis, and every year I find one.”
Shaver believes in treating students as if they were her own children.
“I nickname my students Shaveroonies,” she said. “Love makes the difference in students’ lives.”
Shaver has been in the Round Rock school district since 1985. She taught at the elementary level, both first and third grade, for the first 12 years of her career. Now she teaches sixth-grade math and is department chair.
Q. How has teaching impacted your life?
A. Teaching has made me aware of how everything I say and do impacts people, both positively and negatively. I am always thinking about that. My experiences have made me grateful for my family, both the one I grew up with and my own family now. It has also helped me realize that what has or has not happened to a child changes their life. I am aware of the value of a person.
Q. What is the best/worst part of your job?
A. The best part is being with the students, of course. The worst part is how the rules and structure sometimes prevents us from being able to help a student. The Round Rock district, however, goes out of its way to put students first. We have wonderful principals who always try to find a way to help the students. It can still be difficult to help the students.
Q. What makes you want to come to work everyday?
A. The students. I think about a little boy who was at school every morning before I got there at 6:30. When I came, he would tell me that he was waiting for me. I would let him in and give him cereal and juice from my office and he would sit and do math puzzles. If I was not at the school, no one would have been there for him.
Q. What success stories have you seen?
A. Luis now owns his own business in Detroit. We had lost contact for over 20 years, and one day I found his business Web site on the Internet. I called him to catch up and he still remembered how I had taken him to his first restaurant and how I took him to see my mother who baked him cookies. While I was in Ohio, I ran into a former student who is getting her doctorate, and remembers the songs we sang in my classroom. I have another student who teaches math at the college level and told me she still does things in her classroom that I did in mine. I take that as a compliment.
A. I hope they know that they were more important to me than the subject matter. Many students don’t know they have value. I hope they know I love and value them.
Q. Who was your favorite teacher? Why?
A. A college professor, Dr. Krabill. She is the whole reason I minored in Math Education. It was in her class that math made sense to me for the first time and it was fun. She made class so exciting. I tried to use that in my classes. I took as many of her classes as possible and learned as much from her as I could.
Education: Bachelor’s in Elementary Education, Bowling Green State University
Family: Three daughters
Contact information: 464-5238, Dianne_Shaver@roundrockisd.org
Lucy Pavlik, Third-grade Teacher, Xenia Voigt Elementary
Lucy Pavlik was born and raised in Round Rock at a time when the district had one high school, one middle school and one elementary school.
Her parents, having only reached the third grade, taught their 12 children to value education. When her older brothers and sisters went into the education profession, Pavlik followed.
She has spent 31 years teaching in Round Rock and has watched as the district and the city have both grown.
“I used to know everyone and everyone knew me. You couldn’t go anywhere without running into people you knew, but now I go places and I don’t know anyone. ”
Q. How has teaching impacted your life?
A. My life has been richer because of my teaching experience. I know I have impacted students because they come back to visit. I have become more patient over the years. It has definitely been a fulfilling career without any regrets. I truly enjoy teaching the students. I started as a bilingual educator, and I taught all grades at the elementary level. It was during those years that I fell in love with the third grade. My eighth year of teaching, I started third grade and I have been teaching it until now.
Q. What have you learned from teaching?
A. You have to have patience, compassion and understanding. You need to enjoy what you are doing. I have learned that every day is unique and different, even with a set schedule. That is what keeps me going. I’ve also learned that every child learns differently. It takes different methods to teach. You can’t teach every child the same way. Education is constantly changing, and you have to stay current. There is no way I could teach what I did and how I did my first year. Times have changed; the curriculum and methods have changed. You also have to love kids.
Q. What is the best/worst thing about your job?
A. The best thing is teaching. I love to teach. The worst is the meetings and paperwork. There are endless meetings and paperwork that go with the job. It starts before the students get there and ends after they leave with no break.
Q. Who was your favorite teacher?
A. Ruth Burleson at Berkman Elementary because she taught me to believe in myself. She gave me confidence and reminded me of the things I could do. At the time I was in fifth grade. The schools didn’t have all the secretaries they do now. When the principal, Mr. Berkman, would leave, he would call her, and she would send me to his office to be his secretary. She was an inspiration to me.
- Education: Associates, Central Texas College; Bachelor’s in Education, St. Edward’s University.
- Family: Husband , Michael, son Patrick, daughter Liliana
- Contact information: 428-7575, Lucy_Pavlik@roundrockisd.org
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