Experienced teachers play a crucial role in shaping students’ lives. Their years of dedication and wisdom provide a safe environment where students feel valued and supported. Lynn Mohr came out of retirement to become the new sixth grade English Language Arts (ELA) teacher at Stanley-Boyd School and with over two decades of teaching experience under her belt, Mohr’s return is a welcome addition to the Stanley-Boyd School District, a district that she holds dear. Mohr says, “Stanley-Boyd has such a positive staff culture! Everyone has been so helpful and welcoming. I am so excited to be part of the Oriole team!”
Mohr’s teaching career spans more than twenty years, during which she has made a lasting impact on countless students. Initially she was inspired to become an educator by her grandmothers. “Both of my grandmothers were teachers, and they both were highly influential in my life. They both supported me on my journey to becoming a teacher. I wanted to have a positive influence on children, just like they had,” she comments.
Mohr graduated from Chippewa Falls High School and continued on to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education with a minor in Language Arts. Mohr then became a third and fifth grade teacher in Eau Claire Area School District for ten years and a sixth, seventh, and eighth grade Language Arts teacher in Sparta for twelve years. She also taught middle school, summer school for the last two summers at the Chippewa Falls Boys and Girls Club. But Mohr is not new to the Stanley-Boyd School District. For the last two years she has been a familiar face as a paraprofessional at Stanley-Boyd which allowed her to stay connected with the district and its students.
“I have spent valuable hours helping students, observing teachers, and working alongside other paraprofessionals. I was so impressed with the school district that I decided to come out of retirement to take the 6th grade ELA teaching position. I had no plans to return to teaching after retiring in 2022 but teaching in Stanley feels like a great fit for me!”
Mohr’s journey is not just defined by her professional achievements but also by her dedication to her family. “I always wanted to be a teacher. The only thing I wanted to be more than being a teacher, was to be a mom. I am blessed to be both!” Mohr and her husband, Kirby, raised their four sons in Sparta, Wisconsin but she mentioned that Kirby grew up in Stanley, and their dream was to someday return to Stanley and live on his family farm. When their youngest son graduated from high school, they began looking for job opportunities in the area. By 2022 they had moved into the same home, located south of Stanley, that Kirby lived in while in middle school and high school. They spent the last two years remodeling the house and starting a hobby farm with their 6-month-old energetic Golden Retriever, Ivy. Today their main hobby is taking care of the farm where they have beef cattle, sheep, and chickens. Mohr mentions that they also planted a vegetable garden, and she enjoys canning the extra produce to share with our family. “We both feel like we have returned home,” Mohr commented adding that they live close to their family members in Eau Claire, Wausau, and Mondovi. In their free time Lynn and Kirby enjoy camping and fishing, and hosting meals or playing Cribbage, a family favorite, with their family members.
Mohr is eager to begin the school year and connect with her students. “I am excited to get to know the students and families in this community better and build relationships with them. I am excited to share my love of reading and writing with them and hoping that they will leave my classroom better communicators and citizens than when they entered on the first day of class,” she shared.
She wants parents to know that she tries to treat their children just as she would have wanted teachers to treat her own children when they were in school. “I try to model respect, responsibility, and safety in all things that I do, and I never ask students to do something in my classroom that I am not willing to also do myself.” Mohr mentions that she reads the same books, writes in her journal along with them, and writes essays when they do.
“Kids listen more to what teachers do, than what they say, and I try to be the role model that parents expect.” Mohr explains that everyone makes mistakes including teachers, and she hopes that she can model how to rectify these mistakes with grace and dignity. Mohr mentions that many of her students have impacted her life.
“It is humbling and makes me so proud to see them grow up and become soldiers, teachers, farmers, healthcare workers…There is nothing better than to receive an email, letter,….from one of my students and hear how I impacted their life as a child!”
She wishes that people knew that most educators work really hard to not only deliver a curriculum, but also to be a positive influence on the kids. She admits that teaching during the COVID years was the hardest challenge in her career. “It was hard to adjust to remote teaching and learning the required technology on the fly! I had a great team of teachers, and we leaned on each other to learn how to navigate teaching during this time. It was extremely hard for everyone, but I learned a lot and am grateful that we are back to a normal classroom again.” She continues, “I am proud to say that my students and I made it through those tough times, and someday future students will read about us in history textbooks.”
Teachers can learn just as much from their students and Mohr admits that she loves learning from her students who have taught her to laugh every day! “They also have taught me that the smallest gestures can make the biggest difference.” She enjoys teaching middle school and observing the transformations in her students’ lives. “I love spending the day with middle school students! They are at such an exciting, but challenging time of changes in their lives, and I hope that I can help them through this with kindness and humor.”
In this new school year, Mohr is excited to share her experience and enthusiasm for teaching to her students. As she embarks on this new chapter, Lynn Mohr’s return to Stanley-Boyd serves as a testament to her passion for teaching and her unwavering commitment to the students she serves. The Stanley-Boyd community is lucky to have teachers and staff like Mohr who are committed to nurturing young minds and who are dedicated to ensuring that every child has an opportunity to succeed.
