Photo courtesy of Joey Newberry.
Joey Newberry, who taught at Lakewood Elementary School for over two decades, retired this year.
Newberry joined the school in 2001, but it wasn’t his first teaching job. He started out working for Teach for America. After four years as a Spanish teacher in Houston, Newberry moved to Colorado and worked for Denver Public Schools.
After that, Newberry moved to Dallas. He was a substitute teacher at Lakewood Elementary for about a month.
“They took a liking to me when I visited,” he says.
At Lakewood, Newberry began as a math teacher. Over the years, he also taught United States history and Texas history. For the majority of his tenure at Lakewood, he taught reading and language arts, which was his favorite subject to teach because of the opportunity to study novels.
Joey Newberry with former students at the Woodrow senior reception. Photo courtesy of Joey Newberry.
Newberry credits a former Lakewood Elementary principal, Michelle Thompson, for supporting him and shaping him into the teacher he would become.
In two decades at Lakewood, Newberry wasn’t just teaching. There were also lesson plans to create, colleagues to collaborate with, “bureaucratic red tape” to cut through. It’s not just an 8 a.m.-3 p.m. job; there’s a ton of behind-the-scenes work.
But the students make it all worth it.
“I’ll miss the kids the most — the personalities of the kids and teaching the kids for sure,” Newberry says.
The first thing Newberry plans to do is take a long break.
“Beyond that, I really don’t know yet,” he says.
Cake from Joey Newberry’s retirement party. Photo courtesy of Joey Newberry.
