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Friday, May 22, 2009 10:06 PM CDT
Teacher used medical background to help students with their speech
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- Without Linda Goble’s help, some students might not be able to let their teachers know if they’ve caught on to their math and reading lessons.
The children might not be able to very easily let anyone know what they’re thinking or what they need. Goble doesn’t teach them how to add or how to read; instead she helps them to be able to communicate.
Goble is a speech teacher at Mark Twain Elementary School. She’s retiring this year after 26 years of helping students with communication disorders and problems with social skills.
She originally worked as an X-ray technician but decided she wanted to change careers, and took a friend’s advice and returned to study at Eastern Illinois University. She said her medical background made her believe that teaching speech might be a good move, and she found it surprisingly rewarding.
“I just fell in love with the kids,” Goble said. “I’ve never considered the medical field since.”
A native of Michigan City, Ind., Goble first worked as a speech teacher in the Casey-Westfield school district. After four years there, she came to the Charleston district and has also worked at Carl Sandburg Elementary School and the now-closed Lincoln and Lerna elementary schools.
Goble said she’s seen an increase in the number of students who need help with speech problems. Language disorders are “always there” and she works with most students about once a week “if they’re moderate, which most of them are.”
There also seems to be more children with attention problems, and Goble said part of her job is to meet with parents to help them work on the need for them to be more attentive.
“It’s very hard for them to sit still sometimes,” she said.
A speech problem has to have an adverse effect on a student’s education or social skills for her to see them. With the students at the grade school level where she works, she usually can “gradually see them achieve their goals,” she said.
Goble has a few travel plans for her retirement, and also intends to spend time landscaping and doing other household projects. She hasn’t had much time to spend with hobbies in recent years.
“I’m going to have to pick some of those back up,” she said.
Goble said she hasn’t ruled out returning to work in some way, but she’s going to take at least the summer off. She said she could very well return to the school as a volunteer.
“This is my family,” she said. “I’ve been with the little kids for so long.”
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.
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slap63 wrote on May 23, 2009 1:23 PM: