This fall will be Tracey Lawton’s first time not reporting to school since she was 5 years old. This month, she’ll retire from Rochelle Middle School after 32 years of teaching eighth-grade communication skills.
“When I graduated from college, I remember being upset because I didn’t have a teaching job yet,” Lawton said. “I told my dad fall was coming, and I wasn’t going to be starting school. He told me to go back to school for my master’s degree, and I did. And then I came to work at RMS. I’ve always started school in the fall. That will be weird this year.”
Lawton was hired to teach communication skills at RMS in 1994 and started off teaching seventh and eighth graders, learning under longtime teacher Tana Spires. In 2001, sixth graders were added to RMS, and Lawton started teaching all eighth graders, with four communication skills classes and one literature class. Later on, eighth grade was broken into two teams, and she taught four communication skills classes and social studies.
When RMS moved away from the teams model, Lawton began teaching writing to all eighth graders, an increase to about 150 students after teaching 70-90 previously. About 15 years ago, she worked to develop her own teaching curriculum, and since then has been teaching writing units about historical and modern-day slavery, genocide, and tolerance.
“I’ve been really proud of that,” Lawton said. “We’ve probably donated over $1,000 to Polaris Project, an anti-trafficking organization. The kids raise the money for it. I have our resource officer come in and talk to the students about safety and human trafficking. It’s made me really happy because students are actually learning about things that are going on in the world while learning writing.”
Lawton’s extracurricular work has included supervising the school’s yearbook work and taking students on trips to Washington, D.C., in their eighth-grade year. She enjoyed working with kids outside of the classroom setting,
In her class, Lawton taught writing that was real-world, and she always had an answer when kids would ask how they’d use the information later in life. She enjoyed teaching students how to communicate better for their lives, future education, and careers.
“I love teaching because every day is different,” Lawton said. “Even though I teach six of the same classes, every class is different. We just finished ‘The Outsiders’, and when Johnny dies, kids are always surprised and do things like gasp and drop their books. I’ll remember that forever. Just having that moment where you watch the students get something or get better at something and believe in themselves more is an awesome feeling. “
Lawton called working with staff and administration over her years at RMS “great” and liked having support and different perspectives. Her fondest memories include working with the 8-2 team of teachers and getting letters from former students.
“I remember one from a senior that graduated a couple years ago who said they went and started a whole organization at the high school because of my class and that I taught them that their voice matters,” Lawton said. “It was very touching. That means a lot to me, when I can see a student learned something more than just books and writing.”
Lawton called teaching eighth graders “the best” because they’re young adults, yet still kids. She worked to be honest with them, build trust, and prepare them for high school and their lives.
“I’m so incredibly proud of kids for putting effort forward to improve,” Lawton said. “Because not everybody does. I’d like to say kids put that effort forward because of me, but it’s because of them. When kids take what I show them and go off and make it so much better, it’s honestly the best gift you could ever get as a teacher.”
In retirement, Lawton plans to travel and enjoy her extra time with her family. In her final weeks of teaching, the reality of retirement has hit her as students have started to give her teacher appreciation letters.
“I love teaching the kids, and I’ll miss that more than anything,” Lawton said. “I have my days where it hits me. I just hope I can be remembered fondly by most of the kids and as someone who cared about them enough to want them to do better.”