Sue Hansen remembers her first year teaching at Alex Sanger Elementary.
“I felt pretty cocky in ’91,” Hansen says. “I thought, ‘I have a master’s [degree], and I’ve been teaching pre-school all these years.’”
Hansen soon had a wake-up call.
“I didn’t know anything,” she says. “I kept my mouth shut.”
Other teachers offered suggestions, and Hansen took them, learning how to manage a classroom and navigate both a new school and large district. Seventeen years later, she is still at Alex Sanger Elementary in the same classroom. And just like the teachers who helped her, she is now a mentor for freshman teachers through a program offered by Dallas Independent School District. This year, two new Sanger teachers are under Hansen’s tutelage. She guides them on a range of topics, from arranging desks to dealing with difficult students.
“It’s really exciting to see people grow,” Hansen says. “It’s just giving someone a hand up. It really makes you feel good.”
This isn’t the first time Hansen has helped new teachers. Prior to teaching kindergarten, she was one of the first pre-kindergarten teachers in DISD. As more pre-k classes were established, Hansen’s classroom became a model for the district. New pre-k teachers would visit to see how her class was set up and run.
And when it comes to teaching, Hansen definitely knows what she’s doing. On a recent day, she held the attention of 15 kindergarteners as they sat at her feet and read an email received from a kindergarten class in Katy, Texas. In her soft, gentle voice, Hansen kept their attention, reminding them to look at the email and to raise their hands when they had a question. The email’s topic was a rodeo, so she guided a discussion about cowboys, boots, horses and jeans.
Hansen uses the same calm demeanor and even temper with teachers. Marissa Muntz, a pre-kindergarten teacher at Sanger whom Hansen mentors, says Hansen offers good, sound advice and her support stands out this school year.
“I can hear her across the hall on different occasions,” Muntz says. “And it brings me back to the concept that being calm is the better temperament with early childhood. She has really taken a lot of time with me. She really listens to me.”
Teacher burnout is high, with many people leaving the profession within a few years. Hansen hopes that by helping new teachers, they’ll stay.
“You have to have a game plan, a map to where you’re going,” Hansen says. “Being able to be a mentor in the school is a real privilege. You’re helping them become better teachers.”
