3,279 students.
That is how many young people Jeanne Campion has touched during her 30 years of teaching. She joked that only a math teacher would quantify the data. But ironically, Mrs. Campion wasn’t counting down the number of days left in the school year. The self-proclaimed “numbers geek” said she didn’t want to count her life away.
During her 30 years of teaching, the last 17 of which have been at Mahomet Seymour Junior High School, her setting has changed, the math curriculum has changed and the technology has vastly changed. But math skills have stayed the same.
“One plus one is always two. How we teach is has changed, but the skill is the same,” she observed.
Campion said she graduated from Illinois State University at age 21 and started teaching at Gibson City High School in 1982. Her oldest student was just two years younger than her, age 19. Her first day of teaching was her worst, she noted.
“My first day of teacher in Gibson City, there was a tornado. The power was out, so there were no announcements. All the other teachers knew the protocol to go to the locker room. They forgot to come get my class, so I taught through the tornado.”
She joked that her first day as a teacher is why her current classroom is a designated storm safe area at MSJH. Her classroom is an interior one with no windows.
While at Gibson City, she also coached high school volleyball and junior high basketball. After teaching in Gibson City, she said she stayed at home with her children for a few years before returning to work at Champaign Central High School. She has also taught at Parkland College, the University of Illinois, and MS High School.
It was her time spent at home with her children that allowed Campion to realize her value as a math teacher was not in teaching higher level mathematics in a high school setting, but rather teaching foundation skills to younger students. This is what led her to apply at MSJH.
Campion has worked the longest portion of her career at MSJH and according to Heather Landrus, principal, her contribution to students is a great one.
“Mrs. Campion’s biggest contribution is her dedication to students. She has a never-ending work ethic that she instills in her students. I think that is why she is a great math teacher,” Landrus said. “She teaches the kids that they should never give up on a math problem or any other problem they may be facing in life. There is an overall level of caring that has never wavered with Mrs. Campion.”
Assistant principal, Justin Franzen, said he concurs. “Mrs. Campion has been a tremendous teacher. She has inspired many students to work hard and her strong work ethic is valued by students, parents, other teachers, and administrators.”
Campion said she feels one of her biggest contributions to MSJH is leading the charge to change the schedule so math is taught during two consecutive periods a day (known as double blocking), rather than just one 38 minute period.
“English was already double blocked, and our test scores were improving,” she recalled. Campion’s request was finally granted a few years ago, and MSJH is in its second year of having double blocked math. One of the many changes in math curriculum came about at the same time the scheduling change took place, she said. Campion said she is proud to say she spearheaded both the current math curriculum and the double block. She feels math scores have improved as a result.
Looking back over her career, Campion said by far the biggest change has been in the form of all the technology available to students and to teachers.
“When I first started teaching in 1982, I had ‘computers’ in my classroom. They were cassette driven and we could do very little with them,” Campion recalled. “You had to find the exact spot on the cassette drive in order to pull up what you saved. Needless to say, it was very frustrating for everyone.”
Today’s technology could not even have been fathomed by students and teachers in 1982. Campion uses a Smart Board every day. Her students can access their text book on line and their parents can get “homework hints” by accessing the curriculum’s web site. Even the way parents, students and school personnel communicate has vastly changed.
“The ability to email parents and students has changed how we communicate,” Campion observed. “Using email, a lot of issues are resolved in a timelier manner.”
But while all this technology has in some ways made her job easier, it’s the relationships she has formed that Campion said has made her job memorable.
“There are a handful of students I have taught at MSJH that I taught their parents at Gibson City,” she said. She also said she was privileged to have her own children as students.
“I was able to teach both of my children, which gave me an opportunity to know their high school friends.”
Campion said she has advice for her successor. “Keep up to date with math changes. NEVER stop learning, and bring your sense of humor to the classroom.” And any of those 3,279 students who have had Campion as a teacher can tell you her blood type: B+ (be positive).
Part of her decision to retire now has to do with her parents, Campion said. She noted both passed away when they were in their 60s. “I want to enjoy my retirement,” she said, adding “life is too short.” Her plans for retirement include reading, crocheting, being treasurer for the Friends of the Library, working with the Mahomet Rotary Club, and spending time with her family. She even dreams of writing a book, the working title of which is “Frugal without Being Cheap.” The book will focus on ways to save money and items that are worth spending more money on.
She is looking forward to helping her daughter plan her wedding as she returns to Mahomet to attend graduate school, and her son receiving his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Campion said when she was a child, she was shot. As she grew, she came to realize she was “left on this planet for some reason.” She does not know if that was to touch the life of a particular student, her own family, or maybe a fellow teacher. But there are 3,279 students out there, whose lives were touched by Campion’s .career. And countless more who will be influenced by her dedication to MJHS’s math department for years to come.
