We'll pack the gym for an elementary school program or basketball game, even if it's the middle of the day. There are a lot of connections for our kids. Two tables over sits a little red-headed boy whose confidence as a reader soared last year in Chastain's literacy lab at Maupin Elementary. The young man sauntering in to order a milkshake is Chastain's nephew and former student. People who choose to live here are connected by school, family, church, and history.
Families go back for five or six generations.
And we know how to be flexible. The yellow elementary school, junior high, high school, and administrative offices all share a campus smack in the middle of downtown Maupin. Chastain can't even remember a time when she didn't want to be a teacher. What keeps her motivated and enthusiastic after a quarter-century in the classroom is the opportunity to keep expanding what she knows, whether by serving on a benchmark team with fellow teachers or developing ways to teach to multiple intelligences in the primary grades. I need to find ways to make learning connect for them.