By JEAN TARBETT - The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- Debbie Abel is one of six children, three of whom are teachers.

 
Lori Wolfe / The Herald-Dispatch

Fifth grade teacher Debbie Able teaches a hands-on math class Tuesday at Miller Elementary School in Huntington. Able was named the 2003 Cabell County Teacher of the Year.
 
Her sister was the 1993 Kanawha County Teacher of the Year. Her brother was the 1996 Upshur County Teacher of the Year. Abel, a teacher at Miller Elementary School, told her mother she had no chance of adding to that list.

She was wrong.

"In June, when they told me I was Cabell County Teacher of Year, calling my mom was so special," Abel said at a recent board meeting, pausing to collect herself.

She credits her mother, Cleo Kennedy, for her drive and many of her successes in work and life. Those who chose Abel for the award credit her ability to keep children engaged, and all the extras she contributes to Miller Elementary and education in general.

"I always see the same Debbie -- a teacher supreme," said Mike O’Dell, administrative assistant for elementary education in Cabell County Schools.

Outside the classroom, she’s served as faculty senate chair, social committee chair, adviser for the safety patrol, a grant writer, a member of the county’s reading council and filled countless other roles. Always a "team player," her principal said, Abel and her husband, Rick, were out at 6:30 a.m. on the first day of school, tying red and white balloons around the school.

Inside the classroom, Abel walks the floor with not only an air of command, but a you-can-do-this attitude. Last week, she was teaching her fifth-graders decimals. They used LEGO-like "unit cubes," stacking them in units of 10.

When she asked a question, she had a tone that clearly said she expected her students to answer correctly.

And they did.

"She’s fun," said fifth-grader Jade Wheeler, one of Abel’s students. "She makes everything seem not so hard."

While some teachers might just give a handout and put students to work, Abel describes things in ways that make them seem easy, said Wheeler, who is writing her own book -- just for fun.

She mixes things up to make lessons more interesting, said 10-year-old Matt Shideler. When students were learning about saliva recently, they put chocolate on their tongues and let it melt, he said.

Abel’s students visit the Corps of Engineers. They go to the zoo and the museum.

It’s obvious that Abel loves every minute of teaching, said Dorothy P. Scott, principal at the school. When she visits Abel’s classroom, she sees "a very energized teacher, one with lots of excitement for her children," Scott said. "She gives them the best of her."

That’s because she likes kids, said Abel, 50, who has three grown sons of her own.

"I like their conversations, the things they tell you and when they really get it -- when they’re interested, when they’re edge-of-their-seat learners," said the blue-eyed redhead, who has been teaching 28 years. "I like to see enthusiasm for what we do."

But there are new challenges to teaching, she said. One of the most difficult is parents who are pushing too much on their children.

"Homes are so busy and going lots of different ways," she said. "Getting them to focus when they have dance and football practice is not easy. I tell you, cheerleading practice is a lot more fun than homework.

"Children are overscheduled. They don’t have time to just be 10 years old. I think kids are stressed out and tired. … They have to achieve, achieve, achieve."

When Abel was growing up, she spent a lot of time outside, where she developed a love of science. She was always bringing little green friends into the house, her mother said -- frogs, salamanders, toads and, Abel’s favorite, turtles. Once, she kept a praying mantis in a dresser drawer, Kennedy said.

"She was always bringing that kind of garbage into the house," Kennedy said with a laugh. "She had turtles in the laundry tubs. A little bird that fell out of the nest -- we helped it along and tried to keep it alive. She got a baby chicken for Easter once. We raised it to maturity, and she sold her uncle the eggs.

"I didn’t know what she would finally wind up doing, but there was no doubt in my mind that the kids would go to college. That was just a goal that we had."

Abel, the fifth of six children, lost her father in a car accident when she was 4 years old. Her mother did a tremendous job of raising the children alone, Abel said. They didn’t have a lot of money, but no one knew because her mother could stretch a dollar.

Still, the children learned the value of work, mowing lawns and delivering papers, Kennedy said. That’s another value that Abel hopes to pass along to her students, which is not easy at a time when many kids are handed everything they ask for, she said.

"I want my kids to understand that nothing comes easy," she said. "If it’s worth having, you need to work for it. If you’re going to be good at something, you need to work to get there."
 
 
 
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