Teacher's Corner: Nicole King

Nicole King of North Versailles is a sixth grade teacher at in who does her part to instill a strong sense of community in her students at a young age through a student leadership class. She has been with the since 1999.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

I love watching them learn and seeing them actually grow and mature, especially in sixth grade, because that is the age they do all of those fun things.

How is it personally rewarding for you?

I have to be honest, I go home every day with a smile on my face because I am so happy. Seeing them make the connections on their face and watching them grow up and doing student leadership—it makes a huge difference for some of them. I have been doing it for so long that they all want to do it. By the time they get to sixth grade, they know about it and I want to be a part of the community.

How do you teach them that?

In student leadership class, they need to write an essay about their good qualities and the skills they could use, then they have to get teacher approval and stay out of trouble. Then, they have to establish what student leadership is and come up with a program. Each year, they have to come up with ways to pay back the community. So far, we have done a food drive and they helped decorate the tree in Swissvale. We help them to be involved in the community.

They’re doing pictures for Santa again this year. The older ones enjoy seeing the younger kids’ reactions.

Why is it important for them to learn that at a young age?

You have to learn early what a sense of community is. They aren’t like they used to be a long time ago when you went to the local neighborhood playground and had stay-at-home parents. Now, they have families where both parents are working, latch-key kids or a one-parent family, and there’s no one to take that time. When I was growing up, we were proud of where we were from and that is what I want these kids to have—that sense of pride in the community and the ownership to keep it clean and safe.

If you start it young, it keeps going and going.