Seeley-Swan High School math teacher Annette Johnson is concluding her teaching career this school year after having taught since the late '90s. She looks forward to having more time to travel and take care of her parents.
SEELEY LAKE - Annette Johnson wrapped up her 24-year position as Seeley-Swan High School math teacher at the end of this school year.
Johnson graduated from Great Falls High School in January 1985. Soon after she attended the College of Great Falls where she graduated in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in secondary math education and business. She then received a master's degree in technology in education as well as several math credits from the University of Montana.
She started teaching math at a school in Belt, Montana in 1988. She always had a love for problem solving and became interested in becoming a teacher while in college.
"I didn't think I would be a teacher until I started college and realized being a CPA wasn't going to be my thing," she said. "I wanted to share the beauty of mathematics and the wonder of it all. It is a science and there is more to be discovered. I have learned something new every year and it has usually been from a student or inspired by his/her perspective."
While she was working in Belt, she worked at Wold's Valley Market over a few summers in the '90s after her parents, Emery and Lorraine Johnson moved to Seeley Lake full time.
She taught in Belt until 1997 where she was hired for the upcoming school year by then Seeley-Swan High School Principal Kim Haines to teach math and business in Seeley Lake.
"I wasn't really great at the business classes except for accounting," she said. "I am definitely pretty left brained. God help them if they were to ask me to teach marketing or web design."
Through the years she mainly taught freshmen and seniors Algebra 1 and dual credit courses. SSHS is part of a program that allows students to earn college credit while in high school. Dual credit courses she has taught over the years include linear mathematics and probability, pre-calculus, technical math, Calculus I, Calculus II, and Statistics.
She said she is very proud of all her students who decided to work hard and get a jump on college requirements.
"Sharing what I love and helping kids has been awesome," she said. "I will miss the laughs I had with my students and the successes I watched them achieve."
The most challenging aspect of teaching for her has always been the individual students who were uninterested in learning.
"I was really lucky this year and can say [that my students] were all at school ready to learn and behaved well," she said. "Even the freshmen who had 18 days [of] math class [for] six hours a day [behaved well]. ... It could not have gone better. They were great kids. I will miss them!"
One of Johnson's favorite memories was helping a freshman who was stuck in his locker get out.
"He wanted to see if he could fit - the answer was no," she said.
She said one of her most embarrassing moments during her career was being pulled over for speeding in front of several students outside the school.
"They teased me for a while," she said. "There was a freshman that stood there and watched and he teased me for four years."
The biggest change Johnson has seen over the past few years has been a decrease in the amount of homework required for her classes by the state.
"I feel the bar has come down a bit on what we can expect and we are falling behind other countries," she said.
While she has some uncertainty as to what she will do at this stage in her life, Johnson said she is expecting to have more time to travel and take care of her parents. She rents vacation properties across the world.
"I am afraid I might miss teaching and the school will not be able to get rid of me," she said. "The only reason I am retiring is because I didn't have enough time in the day to do everything else I had going in my life. I will be around if [the school] will let me return."
Johnson said the most rewarding part of her time as a teacher has been seeing her students thrive even when they might not like math.
"Just watching the kids grow and mature is pretty rewarding," she said. "I have been blessed to live in such a great community and beautiful place."
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