TORRINGTON – There are a lifetime of memories for one local second grade teacher who found her home at Lincoln Elementary.

“I come from a family of teachers. My mom was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse I have two out of three of my sisters who are teachers, my brother was a teacher, my husband is a teacher,” Dody Kinney said. “From the time I was in first grade I knew I wanted to be a teacher and it never changed – and I wouldn’t have ever changed anything. It has been without a doubt the passion in my life.”

Kinney said she has younger family members who are also going to become teachers.

Kinney said it’s funny to think back on the years she has spent teaching and that every year is different. Kinney appreciates the opportunities afforded to her by Goshen County School District No. 1 to expand her teaching abilities and strategies. 

She’s retiring this year, after 41 years teaching.

After graduating from the University of Kansas, Kinney taught in Kansas while her husband, Ted, was going to school while serving in the United States Air Force. Kinney taught both kindergarten and first grade, then taught one year of third grade.

They moved to Wyoming in the late 1970. Dody taught for a year at Southeast Schools in Yoder and Ted taught in Huntley.

Kinney said teaching is a wonderful profession to have while raising three sons. It provided scheduling flexibility because their work schedules matched.

“I had weekends off with them other than coming in to work at school,” she said. “I was able to have vacations off with them. They had a wonderful experience growing up in Torrington and we couldn’t have asked for a better place to raise our kids.”

Following their upbringing in Torrington, Kinney said their three boys all went into different careers. 

The oldest, Ben, is an energy attorney who travels the world. Jeremy, the middle brother, deals with corporate wellness and currently lives in Seattle, Wash., and Nicholas, the youngest, works as a fundraiser in Denver, Colo.

Despite the different paths they took, Kinney believes her sons all have a bit of a teacher in them because of the demands of their careers. Growing up with parents who are both teachers, Kinney said her boys understood the time and sacrifice it takes to run a successful classroom.

“I think there’s a lot of professions that it’s hard to make that balance with your home and family,” she said. “I felt like we were able to do that.”

It helped that Ted also made a career out of teaching, she said. He, too, understood the demands of the field.  Today, Ted teaches fifth grade at Trail Elementary.

Another aspect of the balance between work and home for families lies with the reality that every child will end up sick at least once. Kinney said the family balanced that well because of their professions and because they could look at their schedules and choose who was able to set up a substitute teacher any time there was a need.

When it came to home-life Kinney said being a couple both being involved in the same career field allows them to connect by telling stories of their days.

“Plus, we’ve been able to have amazing educational discussions. We both discuss education all the time between the two of us and that’s been a real value,” Kinney said. 

Looking back over the years of her career, Kinney is hard-pressed to point out any one moment that really stands out.

“It’s hard to pick out something,” she said. “I would say that one of the biggest things for me and my classroom is building classroom community. Making this a place that belongs to all of us. This is not my classroom – this is our classroom.” 

Implementing a community board as a centerpiece of her classroom has become a staple. Kinney said the board allows the class to work together.

Another thing that can be learned by walking into the second-grade classroom is that a good morning routine and well-loved books are a must. Kinney and Ted both value the messages the ever-loved Mr. Rogers taught viewers.

“One of the things that my husband started, and then I picked up, is we both do a good morning routine that includes Mr. Rogers,” Kinney said. “And the songs that Mr. Roger does and the things that he teaches which is about kindness and caring and how to handle our feelings. And we both really value the things that Mr. Rogers teaches.”

The day typically begins in Kinney’s classroom, talking about lesson goals and discussing Mr. Rogers’s teachings on kindness and other topics matters to her students, she said. 

“It’s all about the kids,” Kinney said. 

One thing that Kinney said she appreciates about teaching second graders is watching them learning to read, seeing them progress to the point they are learning how to read out of shear enjoyment.

“I just think every age level you have amazing growth that happens,” Kinney said. “When you think about the learning targets the kids have for second grade, it’s pretty amazing.” 

Kinney said that it is an empowering experience to help students and to see the students helping each other reach those goals. 

“I can’t think of anything more exciting than to give them that love of learning. It’s an amazing thing to be able to do that and to see those lights go on and to see those smiles when they’ve got it,” Kinney said. “They know they have it, and they know they worked for it, and they know they can do whatever it was that they were working on. It’s so exciting to watch that happen and to be a part of it.”