West Teacher Mrs. Kozler To retire in late January After 30 Years of Teaching

By now, most of the school has heard, but if you haven’t, the 7th-grade social studies teacher, Mrs. Kozler is retiring in late January 2022 after 30 years of teaching. 

Mrs. Kozler’s reason for retiring is, “I don’t live here anymore.” Mrs. Kozler recently sold her house and moved to a different state so she also stated, “It has been kind of difficult [teaching].” She also said, “After last year I was certain that I was not going to continue because it was a really rough year for me, but this year the kids that I have, my students, have been really wonderful students, and it’s nice to leave on a good note.”

Mrs. Kozler stated that “[After I retire I want to do] a million things. First of all, travel,” Mrs. Kozler’s kids live on both sides of the continent, so she doesn’t get to see them often, she also said that she wants to travel “to see things that I have been wanting to see since I have started teaching social studies.” After she retires, Mrs. Kozler also wants to “learn a couple of languages and probably get a part-time job just helping people.”

So who is replacing her? Mrs. Kozler stated,  “The school is in the process of hiring, so we don’t know yet.”’ 

Mrs. Kozler stated, “There are good parts and bad parts to everything [in teaching], costs, and benefits, I will miss most of all the good parts. And that’s the kids.” However, she also told us, ”I think the most important thing is, I love the people that I work with, so I made some lifelong friends that are very important to me.”

When it comes to happy memories Mrs. Kozler informed us that “I do not have any particular things, (memories.)” However, she said, “I think the thing I enjoy most is what we used to do. In August, we picked up our schedule before school started. And someone would come back from 8th grade or the high school and say, ‘Mrs. Kozler, you taught me how to take notes or you taught me how to read.’ But when some kid comes back and says, ‘you taught me how to do something,’ that is my favorite thing.”

Mrs. Kozler wanted to give some advice to students and teachers, “My advice for other teachers and students is that, stop and think about what is right and know that it does not matter what other people say, think, or do, you gotta do what is right and that is the most important thing.”

So for one final time, Good bye Mrs. Kozler, we will miss you, and enjoy your retirement!