Becky Breen has been teaching first grade and kindergarten for the Wagner School District for the past 34 years. Becky has always said that she would retire from teaching when her youngest child graduated from high school. As her youngest, Jhett, is a WHS 2024 Class Graduate, Becky held true to her words and is officially retiring from teaching this 2023-2024 school year. She wants to end her teaching career still having a love for the students and staff.

Margaret Roberts was Becky’s kindergarten teacher and really inspired Becky. Margaret was a truly wonderful teacher that left a lasting impression on Becky. To this day, Becky can still remember being woken up from their naps with a star wand and the songs that Mrs. Roberts used to play. Becky knew from a young age that she wanted to work with children. As a child, Becky grew up in a household with four siblings close in age which for her was always crazy, eventful and had the family always on the go. Working with children seemed to be a natural fit for Becky.

Becky attended Black Hills State University for her Bachelor of Arts degree in education. She then received her Masters of Science in K-12 Literacy in 2006. She did her student teaching in Spearfish in the kindergarten and first grade classes. Dale Hall was the superintendent of Wagner Community School when Becky began teaching in the fall of 1990. She can remember fellow teacher, Janet Nedved, being very excited when Becky started because Becky took over the gymnastic assistant coaching duties. Becky first began teaching first grade and then moved to kindergarten in 1997. Becky grew up in Wagner and enjoyed her high school experience here and honestly loved everything about Wagner. When Mr. Hall called her for an interview, it was the gymnastics coaching job part of the job that enticed her to move home to Wagner. It was an easy choice for Becky to move back to Wagner. Becky’s family was here and she wanted to raise her kids in a way that was similar to how she and her husband, Patrick grew up.

When asked why she was a kindergarten teacher for so many years, Becky said it was because she loves five-year-olds. She finds it so rewarding to be able to see the huge growth and progress that her students make during the year. Her students are always saying and doing cute funny things. Becky really enjoys being able to expose her students to great authors when reading to them. Being a kindergarten teacher, kept her smiling over the years and that is why she continued with the same grade for so long. Not only did her love of her students keep her teaching at the same grade level, but it was also her wonderful co-workers that made each day that much better. Even though she and her co-workers do not get to spend much time together as they are all busy with their own classrooms, Becky is hoping that she will be able to spend time to have coffee with them and visit in the upcoming years.

Over the years in Becky’s career her teaching philosophy and style has evolved. When she first started teaching her philosophy was along the lines of wanting to create an atmosphere where her students would feel relaxed and make learning their own. After 34 years of teaching, having a relaxed atmosphere for the students is still important to Becky, but there are certain skills that they cannot learn on their own. Teaching is not an independent practice and there are certain skills that kindergartners and first graders must learn in order to be successful in the following grades. As a teacher it is important to stick to the kindergarten or first grade standards and continually practice in order to master the skills to ensure future success.

For Becky, the best part of being a teacher is watching her students grow in the kindergarten classroom and then being able to see them 20 years later enjoying a successful quality of life. The most challenging part of being a teacher would be every day is wonderful but demanding. It is also very difficult to find substitutes to cover classrooms when a teacher needs personal leave or is ill.

Motivating kindergartners is a breeze. The students love any incentive program that a teacher could dream up. In Becky’s classroom she implemented a golden ticket program that worked wonderfully. When her students display good behavior, Becky would reward them with a golden ticket. After a student received 10 golden tickets, they got to go to the prize box. It is a simple but effective incentive. Material that is being taught to students has definitely changed in the 34 years that Becky has been teaching. What she was teaching to first graders is now the material that she is expected to teach kindergartners with reading, addition and subtraction now being taught at the earlier level of kindergarten.

Some unique aspects of being an elementary teacher are what the teachers refer to as “The Good Stuff” which include the morning hugs. They also get a lot of I love yous throughout the day and quite often accidentally are called mom and grandma.

Getting her master’s degree was a big accomplishment for Becky, but so was being loyal to the WCS and teaching profession for the past 34 years. Becky has spent her whole school and career life at WCS except for her college years. All she can say to that is “wow”. It will definitely feel weird to not be driving into the school parking lot when the 2024-2025 school year begins on August 8th.

Even though Becky is retiring from teaching, she feels that she is too young to retire. She plans to spend some time thinking about what the next chapter in her life will look like and what she wants her last quarter of life’s purpose to be. Becky’s overall goals are to spend more time with her grandchildren, be there for her parents and to spend time with her husband. She is sure that there will be work mixed into that equation as well.