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Retiree: Lisa Reed Years with OCPS: 39 OCPS Retirement Date: May 30
When the final bell rings on Wednesday, May 25, it will be fourth-grade teacher Lisa Reed’s last time in class at Prairie Lake Elementary.
For a quarter century, Reed has been teaching students and enriching their lives at Prairie Lake, previously known as Clarcona Elementary until January 2016.
“My favorite OCPS memories include students being excited and bursting with enthusiasm after grasping a skill,” said Reed, who has been educating OCPS students for nearly four decades.
Reed, the oldest of six children, enjoyed being the teacher while playing school with her siblings. She always knew that she wanted to be an educator and took the plunge after learning more about the career path from her cousin who was pursuing a career in education.
After Reed received her Bachelor of Arts in elementary education from Marshall University, she began her education career as an OCPS substitute teacher before she accepted a sixthgrade teaching position at Eccleston Elementary in October 1983.
She taught sixth grade for one year and then second grade for 13 years at the school before moving to a fourth-grade teaching position at Clarcona Elementary in 1997.
One of her fun, classroom activities at Prairie Lake included having her students take a deep dive into learning about sea life by reading
“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” by Richard Atwater and watching SeaWorld San Diego’s penguin webcam 10 years ago.
Her fourth graders wanted to learn more about penguins, so Reed organized a virtual, question-and-answer session with the theme park’s researchers and zookeepers, which was featured in the “West Orange Times & Observer.” The Discovery Channel also gave the students toboggan hats as a learning-experience keepsake, and the class made pony-bead penguins to put on their backpacks.
“The students inspired me to take the lesson in a different direction, which provided them with an opportunity to learn reading and science skills,” she said. “That’s what teaching is all about – sparking that fire of wanting to learn more.”
Reed’s other career highlights include being named the school’s Teacher of the Year for 200506 and participating in teacher talent shows.
In retirement, Reed will be planning her upcoming wedding with her fiancé, Tim Fallecker, traveling and creating stained-glass art.
