Hear from former students as they share their memories from the College of Education.
Kara Kelly Blansett, B.S. Ed. (2016)
Three professors stand out in my memory: Destiny Warrior, Kelly Lynch and Aiyana Henry. Destiny was extremely relatable. She never sugar-coated any of the realities of teaching in Oklahoma, but she was always there to offer an encouraging word or a hot meal. Kelly was constantly uplifting. I was never able to have a bad day when I was in her class. Dr. Henry was and still is an inspiration. She demanded excellence from us as her students and helped us reach our highest potential. She had us to her house multiple times during our Internship semester and always let us know that her office and her home were open to any of her students who needed a listening ear.
Cathy Coco Burden, B.S. Ed. (1970); M.Ed. (1972)
My student teaching at the OU Lab School was a mind-expanding experience working with unique children in a setting that was designed to nurture and support them as much as possible. The chair of the department, Dr. Teska, influenced my professional focus on developing a learning environment that provided a community of support for students and a culture of respect for educators.
I encourage future educators to care for the social, emotional and physical wellbeing of students as well as their academic achievement.
Faith (Kelly) Clune, B.S. Ed. (1988)
My favorite memory is teaching in the Institute of Child Development. It was a lovely, white two-story house, which was located where the parking garage behind Catlett Music Center is today. We got so close to our other early childhood peers as we did student teaching there together. Our professor, Dr. Joanne Hendrick, supervised us and taught alongside us. Those were some rich learning experiences for all of us; true hands-on learning for the children AND for us.
Nancy (Jones) Disterlic, B.S. Ed. (1993)
I proudly graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. I have been an advocate for the power and opportunity of public education. I have lived in the DFW area for over 22 years and continued my pursuit of inspiring great educators. I celebrate with you all the accomplishments and memories from my experiences in the Department of Education that I carried directly into the classroom. I can confidently say OU’s influence continues to impact students today. Thank you for your program and passion. Thank you for making the opportunity available to celebrate our tradition of excellence in education.
Shannon Ford Garrett, B.S. Ed. (1991)
My favorite memory would probably be doing my student teaching at Eisenhower Elementary. I feel that’s when I really learned how I wanted to teach and to model my classroom. I had the best role models at that school. It was open concept, so I was able to observe many teachers.
My advice is to be open to learning new things and new ways of teaching. You are always a student, so use the teachers around you. They are a great resource. Ask questions!
Charlotte Gordon, B.S. Ed. (1973); M.Ed. (1976)
My fondest memory involves time spent with my brothers and their friends. We came from a competitive family and when I transferred from a junior college and my brother was recruited to play football here, we often met to play basketball and other sports when he didn’t have practice. His playing football was my impetus to try out for cheerleader. In the field of education, I have fond memories of Dr. Michael Lagenbach checking on my progress and making me feel confident and competent.
Important lesson I learned: No matter the obstacles or how difficult the journey, one must be tenacious to reach his/her goals.
My hope for the future of education: My hope is for education to not only stay current but forward focused while maintaining the importance of meaningful personal social engagements and interactions.
Jackie Griffith, M.Ed. (2002)
My best memories are the great professors. They were very approachable and personable; very supportive. My advice to future educators: Build real, true relationships with your students and let them build the same with you. Without relationships there is no quality teaching or learning.
Cathey Simmons Humphreys, B.S. Ed. (1970)
Today’s educators must be prepared to teach students from many different backgrounds. It is imperative that their teacher preparation courses cover a broad range of subjects and experiences. I strongly urge future educators to learn a foreign language, to study abroad and to be creative in their thinking about how to provide meaningful learning experiences to their students.
Philip T. Johnson, M.Ed. (2011)
I remember when Collings Hall was receiving its makeover, and JRCoE was temporarily housed on Constitution Avenue in the now-demolished building by the golf course. I vividly remember one instance where I was going in for class and a golf ball trickled in down the hallway (via an errant shot from the nearby range). It was hilarious, and indicative of just how humorously unpredictable life in JRCoE truly was. Now that I'm advising undergraduate students in JRCoE, I continue to see our vision grow to benefit every student who steps into our courses. My advice for future educators is to embrace the imperfections and mistakes you will make in your profession. Learning from those unexpected events and adopting that can-do attitude strengthens your knowledge base and it helps you relate better to your students when they make mistakes. Most of all, never lose the zeal for your profession; it's not just a job, it's a dream put into continuous action...so enjoy it every day!
R. Paul Johnson, M.Ed. (1954); Ed.D. (1961)
I am an 87-year-old professor emeritus of counseling from Texas A&M-Commerce who received an M.Ed. in guidance from the college in 1954 and an Ed.D. in guidance in 1961. I was then employed at East Texas State Teachers College in Commerce, where for 33 years I thoroughly enjoyed my role as a professor in what is now the Department of Counseling at Texas A&M-Commerce. My wife, Norma, received a B.S. in elementary education from the college and has now retired from being an elementary teacher for about 20 years. She received her Ed.D. from East Texas State University.
My memories of my four years in the college are wonderful. I will mention names of profs whom I remember (there were others, also). My major professor was Dr. F. F. Gaither, a caring man and good guide during dissertation writing. I will mention others who influenced my education and my life. In no particular order, the names are Rinsland, Lieberman, Shannon, Teska, Heilman, Bridges, Kelly, Dean Harlow, Rupiper, Williams and Galloway. I was a grad assistant for Dr. Arthur Heilman, for two years assigned to teaching the non-credit six-week course in Speed Reading and Vocabulary Development (students paid, I think, $20 to enroll).
While in my first year in the doctoral program, after serving in the U.S. Army for two years as a psychiatric social worker from 1954-56, I met a Chi Omega and in about a year we married. We have now been married for 61 years, have two adult daughters, one a J.D. from Harvard Law and the younger a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Oregon and is a Licensed Psychologist who practices in a Lane County (Eugene, Oregon) medical clinic.
Charlotte Jones, B.S. Ed. (1976)
My favorite memory of attending OU is that of being a curious student challenged by new thinking. I loved the challenges in Inquiry Science with Dr. Renner and later my teaching with his colleague Vivian Coulter. I also loved Dr. Judy Ford Barber's math for elementary teachers’ class. Math was my first love, and Dr. Barber challenged me to become a more serious problem solver, which influenced my belief that children find excitement in learning to problem solve and all can learn to think mathematically when they believe math is fun and they work together in a challenging environment that provides opportunity for every child to excel. This philosophy I carried with me throughout my career of teaching math in grades 2-6.
My career and work in education spans 43 years. After graduating from OU in 1976, I began teaching at Eisenhower Elementary, where I had student taught the prior semester. Following five fabulous years at Eisenhower and working and learning from outstanding educators such as Susan Gladhill, Charlotte Gordon, Vivian Coulter, Richard Dennis, Kathy Tabor, Randy Waddell, Billy Carlson, Dr. Barber, Gracie Branch, Pat Simons, Lynne Miller, Claudia Swisher and many others, I moved to Elk City, Oklahoma.
In Elk, I continued to teach math at the fifth- and sixth-grade levels for 10 beautiful years. The district supported my work and students were excited by new challenges as I was continuing to grow and use new ideas from the National Council of Math teachers yearly conference.
I returned to Norman in 1991 and taught sixth-grade math at Whitter Middle School in Norman. I loved the middle school challenges there and working with Lynne Miller as principal.
The following year, I was moved to Truman Elementary as assistant principal. In 1994, I was made principal of Madison Elementary. I spent 10 incredible years as principal of Madison, Elementary, retiring in 2004.
Since Madison, I have worked as the director of Local Education Foundations at the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. I also worked for eight years at the K20 Center alongside Dr. Mary John O'Hair, Dr. Jean Cate and Dr. Linda Atkinson, among many other outstanding educators.
For the past three years, I have worked as a mentor/coach to new principals and assistant principals in the state of Oklahoma. I also serve on the JRCoE Board of Advocates and chair the JRCoE Dean's Advisory Council.
Charles Kreutz, B.S. Ed. (1968)
Shared by his granddaughter, Cassidy Vandervoort, B.S. Ed. (2018)
Charles Kreutz is from Wayne, New Jersey, and came to the University of Oklahoma in 1963. He started as a business major before deciding on a degree in education. He was on the football team during the 1963 season, and was in Army ROTC from 1963-1964, earning his way up to sergeant during that time. He was also a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, Beta Omnicron chapter. In December of 1968, he graduated with a B.S. in education, under President George Cross. After graduation, he moved back to New Jersey and went on to receive two master’s degrees: a Master of Counseling and a Master of Secondary Education -Supervision from Montclair State University. His career started with a position teaching physical education and general science. He then became a middle school counselor, to a middle school assistant principal. He moved up to become a high school assistant principal, then a middle school principal. He retired in 1998 after 30 years in education.
In 2014, I graduated high school from Minisink Valley High School in Slate Hill, New York, and started at the University of Oklahoma, the only college I applied to during my senior year. I started at OU pre-enrolled at the Jeanine Rainbolt College of Education. My declared major was language arts education. I worked throughout my time at OU, and was a member of the community service organization, Alpha Phi Omega. After four-and-a-half years at the University of Oklahoma, I graduated exactly 50 years (almost to the day) after my grandfather, Charles, with a B.S. Ed. in language arts Education. I hope to continue my career in education and stay as long as my grandfather.
Edmund Marek, B.S. Ed. (1970); M.Ed. (1972); Ph.D. (1977)
My association with the college goes back 50 years! I began my undergraduate studies at OU in 1966 and graduated from the College of Education the first time in 1970. I’d found my calling and continued my studies when I began teaching. Completed an M.Ed. and Ph.D. in the college, then took a university position in Texas. I began realizing a dream when I joined the JRCOE faculty in 1982; retired in 2016. 50 blessed years.
Frederick Patrick, M.Ed. (1993)
My most memorable professors were Jim Gardner and Mary Scott. My record at OU allowed me to enter the Vanderbilt doctoral program in 1993. The dissertation I completed at Vanderbilt was published by the University of Michigan and picked up by Amazon.com. I always suspected Dr. Gardner had something to do with U of M Press publishing my Harris-Hillman Story of a special education school. As an undergrad College of Arts and Sciences major, I worked at the Cerebral Palsy Institute in Norman, later renamed the J.D. McCarthy School, in northeast Norman. Harper Orth was my boss at CPI. I have good memories of OU's Collings Hall and the evening program in special education.
I was student senator for Collings Hall and elected chair of OU Student Senate in 1992-93. We met Sunday evenings in Adams Hall. I also worked at the OU Student Disability Center, then located in Hester Hall on Elm. When George Herbert Walker Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1991, the center director, Suzette Dyer, asked me to meet with OU faculty in meetings across campus about the new law and what OU was doing to serve students’ academic needs. I really enjoyed working one-on-one with those students and their homework and preparing for exams.
I was named a "Master Teacher" in 2010 and spent a year, 2010-2011, presenting sessions of differentiated learning in the classroom at regional meetings sponsored by the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
My namesake, Fred L. Patrick, may have been the first licensed teacher in Oklahoma, as my grandfather graduated from Mounds school in mid-1907 (still Indian Territory) and attended a teacher training program for one year and then assigned to teach in Wolf, not far from Norman. He was later a school principal in Bristow, then mayor of Sapulpa (1950) and enshrined in the Oklahoma Cowboy Hall of Fame. He performed in rodeos for years. All three of his children attended OU in the 1930s. Volita graduated Phi Beta Kappa and my father was president of the IFC at OU, graduating law school in 1938 or 1939.
Cynthia Hudson Reed, B.S. Ed. (1976)
Since I graduated almost 43 years ago I have few distinct memories. I do recall my Science for the Elementary School class (EDUC 3192). The class was populated with football players, and the tasks performed and studied certainly were within the elementary curriculum. Once I brought my daughter to class (she was 7) and she enjoyed sitting on the lab table and being the center of attention and experiments! One of my other classes included one of the Selmon brothers who played football. He was a gentle giant of outstanding character and demeanor, and I often thought what a wonderful teacher of young children he would be.
Overall I felt I was very well prepared to teach. Everything I learned about being a teacher came from my years at OU. Later years doing credential and master's degree work in California did not compare in the depth and breadth of information presented and gained in the OU College of Education.
Deborah C. Taylor, B.S. Ed. (1976)
In July 2019, I will have been retired for four years. I spent most of my career as an elementary school counselor. It was very fulfilling, and I felt counseling was a calling for me. OU provided the base for me to begin as a special education teacher and later to become a counselor. I owe it all to the College of Education.
Jeanne Burgess Webb, B.S. Ed. (1973); M.Ed. (1987)
I was in the first Foundation in Native Education group in 1986-87. The purpose of FINE was to prepare Native educators to become school administrators. Dr. Jerry Bread was the director. There were eight members of the group and we worked on projects, studied together and graduated together. I am still in touch with one member but others in the group were from all over Oklahoma. It was an amazing program and continued for several years.
Amy Jones Williams, B.S. Ed. (1970)
Some of my favorite memories were teaching in the lab school on campus. It was such a wonderful place for children and a supportive environment to try out our teaching skills. I also enjoyed being a Student Teacher Supervisor for the college. I got to see student teachers putting their skills to work in the classroom and I enjoyed going to many different schools.