Peggy Boozer could tell that the student teacher working with her first-graders at Whitaker Elementary School in Winston-Salem was no stranger to the classroom.
"She seems like a pro already. You can tell that she's been around teachers,'' Boozer said of Lauren Hagler, 21, a student at Appalachian State University in Boone. "She is aware of little things that happen when teaching."
It shouldn't be surprising. Hagler is following both of her maternal grandparents, Claudette and Bill Honeycutt, longtime teachers in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system, and her aunt, Melissa Honeycutt Abee, into the classroom.
Bill Honeycutt taught sixth grade at Whitaker and later served as the school's assistant principal and then principal from 1966 to 1971. He retired in 1992 after 33 years in education.
Her grandfather finds sweet continuity that Hagler has been assigned to the same school where he worked for so many years. He said he remembers taking Hagler's mother sledding on the Whitaker campus one snow day. A talented tenor, he remembers being known as "the singing principal." His scrapbook, filled with articles, letters from students, programs and pictures, holds great interest for Hagler.
As Honeycutt recently showed Hagler a picture of him teaching at Whitaker, she noted that many things are similar, even though a new building was built on the same campus several years ago.
Chalkboards have been replaced by dry-erase white boards, but the layout remains the same. Bulletin boards to showcase student work hang above and beside the boards teachers use.
Hagler, who is from Kernersville, cites her grandparents' influence on her career decision. She played with their classroom materials, begged her grandmother for extra handouts, organized her sister and younger cousins into playing school, and even asked for an overhead projector as a present one Christmas. Each summer, she helped her aunt set up her kindergarten classroom at Cash Elementary School. When Hagler attended East Forsyth High School, she participated in Teacher Cadets, a program that allows high-school students interested in education to assist in elementary classrooms.
When she was selecting a college to attend, the Honeycutts took her to visit ASU, Bill Honeycutt's alma mater. Four years later, she is preparing to graduate from ASU in May while completing her student teaching at Whitaker.
Hagler will graduate with honors on May 9, the day before her grandfather's birthday.
She has committed to teach in North Carolina for the next three years.
Now that Hagler is getting close to having her own classroom, the teachers in her family offer more advice.
"I've told her don't ever get in the way of the kids learning. Don't set up too many walls and fences with too many rules,'' Honeycutt said. "Kids are so smart. They will learn if you just let them."
Hagler's gentle demeanor and readiness for her career is apparent in her preparation.
"I like being able to make lessons and engaging. You can look in the kids' eyes and see it click," she said.
"It's an amazing feeling when reading groups come back the next day and remember, or when all of them have smiles on their faces."
■ Monica Young can be reached at cyoung9@triad.rr.com.
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