Cyndie Volpone

I attribute my success to the most challenging students I had - they were the ones who taught me the kind of patience I needed to make a difference. Those kids that maybe some teachers might have given up on were the ones who most inspired me. To this day, I get messages from former students, like one who recently wrote 'Mrs. Cindy, you'll never know how you saved my life.' I had a student named Steve Yang from Cambodia who came to me not speaking any English and having fled his country to save his life. I took him under my wing for 2 years, and he became fluent by the time he left my classroom. He's now the maker of Screwball Peanut Butter Whiskey that's sold worldwide, and he came back every year to donate money to our school to thank us for what we did for him and his family. Those kinds of stories and those people in my life have done nothing but inspire me to stick it out. I developed so many relationships with families over 38 years at the same school that the community became like my family. I had generations of kids - in my last years, I was teaching the children of my former students and doing parent conferences with people I had taught when they were 12. When they came to my retirement party, it was amazing because I was such a part of their family and they were my family. Those kids really taught me every year how to be a better teacher.

To keep going, no matter the challenges.

Give yourself grace. There's nothing easy about our job - we parent, we nurse, we counsel, we're therapists, we're physical education teachers, we're everything. It's life-sucking and exhausting. But when you see you're making a difference, even if you make a difference with one kid out of the 37 that are in your classroom, just give yourself grace. I put a lot of pressure on myself over the years and brought my job home with me. It's a never-ending job and it's easy to burn out when something is that challenging. Parents can make it really difficult, and it's sad to say this, but it's a pretty thankless job. You have to give yourself grace because you have to know that you're only human, you're not a superpower. You can only do what you're capable of doing. And don't give up. Just keep trying. Because even if it's one kid that you've changed the life of, like my student Jacob who writes me things like 'Mrs. Cindy, you'll never know how you saved my life,' those are the moments that matter. You're allowed to break down, you're allowed to cry, you're allowed to be angry. Give yourself this grace that you deserve. But then, pick yourself up and just know that you can make a difference for yet another one. So just do it. Not everybody can do this job, and you're a special person if you can.

I feel like the new breed of teachers now don't last as long as my generation did. That generation, they move on. I'm old school, I'm in my 60s, and I feel like our skin is a little thicker and we tolerate more than maybe the new generation. Education changed so much after COVID, and expectations changed over the years. It's such an exhausting career. My role for younger teachers over the years has been to sit and tell them 'you've got this, take a deep breath, take a day off, go get a massage, do what you have to do to rejuvenate yourself, because you are making a difference.' I get messages from my colleagues often now saying 'Cindy, I miss you, I had a bad day yesterday,' because I always took the time to let them cry. With my age and my wisdom, I felt like it was my job to help them understand that they weren't Superman - you're allowed to break down, you're allowed to cry, you're allowed to be angry. Give yourself this grace that you deserve. But then, pick yourself up and just know that you can make a difference for yet another one. As a teacher, you never know what resonates with kids. You're typically looking around a classroom full of 12-year-olds running around crazy and thinking they don't understand anything you're telling them. But they really do, and they really do take it with them in life, and they remember.

The values that are most important to me in both my professional and personal life are trust, integrity, and respect. I strive to uphold these principles in every interaction, as I believe they are the foundation of meaningful relationships and effective collaboration.

One of my greatest achievements has been my ability to support and reach challenging students while also building strong, lasting relationships with their families. I take pride in creating an environment where students feel seen, supported, and capable of success.

I recently made the decision to retire less than a year ago in order to care for my 89-year-old mother. While stepping away from full-time teaching was a significant transition, I remain committed to education and plan to continue giving back by mentoring future teacher candidates.