Kathleen Peterson Hired as Island School's Special Education Teacher
By Karen Gould

Kathleen Peterson begins her first day as Mackinac Island's new special education teacher Tuesday, September 4.

Kathleen Peterson knew she wanted to be a special education teacher when she was in the eighth grade, although she did not think it would be on Mackinac Island. Last month, the St. Ignace native and LaSalle High School graduate was hired to do just that.

"It's real close to home," Ms. Peterson said, "and I never thought I'd come back right after college. That was not my plan."

One week before Island classes began, she was sorting through boxes of teaching aids, some hers, some belonging to the school, and decorating her room, which is just to the left of the playground entrance doors.

Over the last month, her life has moved quickly from a summer job in Harbor Springs to an interview and job offer just four weeks before the start of school.

She was hired July 25 from among 40 applicants to replace Crystal Hilborm, who was hired last April to complete the school year after Andrea McClintock left in December.

A 2007 graduate from Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Ms. Peterson began her college education working toward a degree in early childhood and elementary education. Two years ago, the college added learning disabilities to its teaching program.

The school also is taking advantage of her background in music. Along with her special education duties, each afternoon

she will teach the school's elementary music program for students in kindergarten through seventh grades.

"In a small school like Mackinac Island's," said school Superintendent Roger Schrock, "our teachers do a host of things. They are multitalented."

Having just learned that she will run the music program two days earlier, Ms. Peterson has had little time to prepare, although she already has some ideas. With eight years of piano lessons to her credit, she hopes to make use of the school's keyboards and percussion instruments, which always are fun for students to play, she said. She anticipates she also will be teaching singing.

Ms. Peterson plays the clarinet, has taught herself to play the flute, and sings in a church group at Glen Memorial Baptist Church in St. Ignace.

The five special education students in her charge can expect a lot of hands-on experience, she said. For mathematics, they will use items that they can touch and manipulate, such as blocks, to help them solve problems.

"I don't want it to be a place where students come and they don't want to be here," she said. "I don't want it to be someplace that they dread coming. I want it to be a safe environment where they are free to learn at their own pace."

For writing, she said, handson learning is more difficult. The goal is to get students to read stories they enjoy, so it is not a dreaded thing to do.

"Most students with learning disabilities," she said, "struggle with reading."

To help students become better readers, improve their reading skills, and voluntarily read on their own outside class, Ms. Peterson will let them chose the book. To further their experience with words, she will ask them write about what they have read. That exercise connects writing to reading.

"If it's something they want to read," she said, "then it motivates them. There are going to be those times that they're going to have to read something they don't care about, but as much as I can get them to read something they are interested in, it will selfmotivate them because it is something that they want to do. It's something that they picked out."

For now, Ms. Peterson, like Island teacher Susan Bennett, will be commuting by ferry to school each day from St. Ignace. When winter weather arrives and the boat stops running, they will moved to the Island.

Ms. Peterson has friends looking for a place for her to live on the Island, although she is not worried about that right now.

"I'm too busy getting the classroom ready," she said.