By Bonita Wilborn
Steve Bowman and Sherri Blevins are both long- time teachers at Plainview, they are both sixth grade teachers, and both are retiring at the end of this school year.
“I’ve been teaching for 34 years,” Mr. Bowman said. “I began my teaching career at Valley Head in 1984. I graduated from Jacksonville State University in May, got married in June, on the day of my wedding Bob Gray told me that I had a job at Valley Head, and I started teaching in August. I stayed at Valley Head for six years and then transferred to Plainview and I’ve been there ever since. It’s been a great career for me. I coached for 25 of the 34 years, basketball (both boys and girls), junior high football, and varsity softball. I’ve had a lot of good kids through the years.
Sometimes when I’m out in public I have kids, well now they are adults with children of their own, but they will come up to me and talk with me about when they were in my classroom. Sometimes it’s kids that you really didn’t realize you impacted that much. They’ll say, ‘You meant a lot to me.’ or ‘You helped me through some hard times.’ When you hear those kinds of things, it validates the career path that you’ve taken to know that you had a positive impact on kids.”
When asked about the changes that he has seen over the past 34 years Mr. Bowman answered, “Technology has had a big impact on society. It can be a good thing if used the correct way, but it’s one of the biggest challenges too.”
When Steve Bowman first began his teaching career, it was at a time when most elementary teachers taught the same classroom of students all of the subjects that were required. “I’ve taught Math, English, Social Studies, and Science,” he said, “but the last several years I’ve taught only Science. Sometimes it does get monotonous, but it helps us to specialize more on a specific subject and you can cover it better.”
Bowman concluded, “I’ve worked with a lot of different teachers over the years and I’ve made a lot of friends. I’ve been really fortunate to have good administrators who’d listen and work with you.”
Mr. Bowman is currently undecided as to what the next chapter in his life holds. “I’m still waiting on God to open a door,” he said.
Sherri Blevins has been teaching for a total of 32 years. “My first 12 years were at Evans Elementary School in Albertville,” she began, “where I taught Computer Science and Reading Remediation the first year. For the other 11 years I taught fourth grade, minus three weeks as a librarian. The last 20 years have been spent at Plainview where I began as a third grade teacher then moved to sixth grade.”
When asked about the changes she’s seen in education over the years Sherri answered, “The biggest change has been in the field of technology. To survive we have to live in the technical world. That’s one thing that I’ve enjoyed doing. I’m no tech expert, but I’ve tried to incorporate that with projects and in my writing assignments.”
Both Bowman and Blevins commented that the curriculum changes have been much like a pendulum swinging back and forth, stating that they’d have to try one thing for a while and then when it didn’t work they’d have to adjust and change to something else.
“We just tried to put the kids first and do what was best for them,” Bowman said. “Sometimes it was a little more inconvenient for the teacher, but we have to make it right for the kids. We have to prepare them for the next chapter of their lives.”
Mrs. Blevins added, “For a while we were really put under a lot of pressure so far as testing goes, that took away from the enjoyment of teaching. In the past five or six years I’ve not felt that pressure as much and I’ve really tried to enjoy more what I’m doing and have more leniency in teaching the children the way I want to teach them.”
When asked about the students that stand out in her memory, Sherri said, “I have several students both at Plainview and at Evans that stand out in my memory. We just seemed to connect. It’s not the problem students, but the students that just seem to need a little more attention. When you can make that connection it feels like your helping them out, probably more emotionally than academically. That creates a special bond that you want to cherish. I’ve had several students like that. A lot of times I’ve enjoyed more working with the kids that might feel left out or out of place. I kinda like to be their cheerleader.”
Mrs. Blevins concluded by saying, “It has been a joy and a true privilege to be a part of the Plainview Family.”
Mrs. Blevins already has a part time position as the Children’s Director at Broadway Baptist Church. She said, “I plan to continue that, I’m excited that I’m going to be working at Mountain Valley News a few days a week, and I will be keeping my youngest grandchild one day a week.
In their combined years of service Sherri and Steve have taught a combined total of approximately 5000 students.