
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 29, 1995                   TAG: 9505300002
SECTION: NEWSFUN                    PAGE: NF-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TEACHER OF THE WEEK

Mary Akers has taught at Rocky Mount Elementary School for 23 years. She says she has no desire to work anywhere else and hopes to finish her career there.

"You get used to the staff and kids," she said. "Now I'm teaching the children of children I taught. It does make me feel old."

Akers says she strives to be fair to all her pupils and offer each an opportunity to succeed. "When someone's having a bad day, I want to help make them feel better. I try to tune into their feelings," she said. Her own sensitivity helps her accomplish this, Akers said. "I'm very sensitive myself, so that makes me overly sensitive to a child's feelings."

"Mrs. Akers is nice and makes learning fun," said her nominators. Akers says she loves teaching Virginia history, which she says gives children "a sense of their roots."

Among her class's activities this year are a trip to Monticello and Ashlawn and a visit to a one-room school at Halesford Academy in Franklin County.

Married and the mother of three grown sons and the grandmother of one, Akers likes to read, sew and garden. She lives near Boones Mill and is active in her church.

by CNB