Student ready to learn again

Things in Karin Steever’s classroom at Skyview Elementary School haven’t changed much over the years.

There are still the same rules posted on the wall: Safety first. Be kind. Do your best.

Mrs. Steever, a 29-year teaching veteran, hasn’t changed much either.

“She still tells the story of the alphabet kingdom, and how the alphabet got its name from alphabet land,” said one of her former first-grade students, Katie Arnhold, now 22. “She was by far my favorite (teacher) ever.”

And that’s why she came back to Steever’s classroom 15 years later.

Standing in front of Steever’s second-grade students at Skyview Friday, it was Arnhold’s turn to tell the story of the alphabet kingdom.

A student at Whitworth College, Arnhold is spending this school year student teaching side-by-side with Steever.

“To see her remember some of the things that we did when she was a student, it’s such a joy for me,” Steever said. “I’m learning as much from her as she is from me.”

“It’s the circle of learning and teaching that we, as teachers, strive for in our lifetime,” Steever said.

Their relationship started in 1988 at Skyview. After Arnhold moved on, Steever, 53, kept track of her, as with all her students.

Steever has made it a practice to keep all the photos sent by former students over the years. There are graduation, wedding, class photos and newspaper clippings that make up a collage in her classroom. The sign overhead reads, “All My Children.”

There are three obituaries on the wall.

“I tell them when they walk across that door that they will be mine forever,” Steever said. “It’s just so powerful to see what they become.”

When Arnhold walked into Steever’s classroom this spring seeking a student-teaching assignment, and saw a newspaper clipping of a photo from Arnhold’s senior year in high school stapled to the wall, she knew instantly she wanted to be a part of Steever’s learning circle again.

“I knew I wanted to be that kind of teacher; obviously she loves these kids,” Arnhold said. “I also knew she’d take the time to invest in me, in my career as a teacher.”

Arnhold said she has written down everything Steever has said since school started two weeks ago.

“She is so positive, she really listens to the kids,” Arnhold said. “It’s great, because I remember her caring that much about me.”

She hopes to combine Steever’s kind spirit and many of Steever’s ideas into her own classroom one day, including the “Loving Cup” – a giant paper cup at the front of the classroom where students nominate class members for acts of kindness each week.

“They give me a year of their lives to work with them, and I give them a year of mine,” Steever said of her students. With Arnhold, Steever feels like she’s been given a second blessing.

“She is giving me another year, and I have one more chance to be with her, to grow with her. It’s just amazing.”