Handmade art pieces dance across the room, the walls covered in hard work and ambition. Room 23 has been occupied by Diane Kaiser, Resource teacher and her aid, Joanna Maxwell, for over the past 25 years. Together, they have shaped character, transformed behavior, developed potential, and influenced futures for their many English students who secure a wide range of differing abilities. This year, Kaiser and Maxwell will finish an important career as they move forward into retirement, waving goodbye to the world of difference they have created for hundreds of students.
“I call them my ‘doublemint twins,’” Jonellia Guinn, Principal’s Secretary and co-worker of Kaiser and Maxwell, said. “I will miss their presence on campus. They are room 23.”
Over the years, Kaiser and Maxwell have worked with students with differing needs and abilities. While some students may excel in certain areas, they turn to Kaiser and Maxwell’s aid for assistance in other areas where they struggle due to disorders in language, memory, emotion and/or reading. And since their students process information in a variety of ways, Kaiser and Maxwell’s teaching methods have always changed. “We find other ways to reach them,” Maxwell said. They google pictures in the middle of a lesson to illustrate a concept or try talking at a different pace to help specific students understand. “Ms. Kaiser is the best English teacher I’ve ever had,” Senior Caelyn Griffith said.
Kaiser also loves to take her students on trips. “It’s not all about the state tests” for Kaiser’s students. It is also about community culture, especially through visits to places such as the Kirk Douglas Theater and the Museum of Tolerance. “This is the way students learn best,” Kaiser said. Designed as a literature-based course, Kaiser’s class also reads as many classics as possible.
Kaiser has worked in education for 40 years and Maxwell for 38, allowing them to experience generations of change. Kaiser and Maxwell see the most change within the students. “Every generation has its ‘thing’,” Kaiser said. In fact, in the ‘70s, on one Halloween, the gothic punk rock trend left Kaiser perplexed on who was in costume and who was dressed in normal attire. However, the amount of tolerance from the student body has not changed over the years. Bullying has always existed, but with the platform technology creates, bullying has “now been exposed. It’s more vocalized,” Kaiser said. To encourage tolerance, Kaiser and Maxwell’s students have created and posted anti-bullying posters in the hallways.
Going onwards, Kaiser would like to visit all of the National Parks and Maxwell would like to travel to her mother’s birthplace, Riga Latvia. As for Culver, Kaiser hopes that her replacement will be the advocate that she was for the students and will take them on many trips. “I hope the kids are happy,” Maxwell said.
