Thank you to each of our colleagues who are retiring this year for your exceptional contributions to the college and lab schools. While we will miss you in our classes and on our teams, we wish you all a wonderful retirement. Good luck in your next adventure!
Nancy Harr – Metcalf School
Nancy Harr is a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing for the Heart of Illinois Low Incidence Association program at Thomas Metcalf School. She is a veteran teacher who has worked in various roles during her tenure at Thomas Metcalf School. She began serving students with special needs when she was originally hired in 2004 to serve as a substitute. She officially joined the department in 2007 and has been educating students who are deaf and hard of hearing ever since. She is passionate about the field of deaf education and has not only instilled this in her colleagues, families, and students, but in all the pre-service teachers she has worked with over the years.
Nancy McCain – University High School
Nancy McCain has been in the Lab schools for the last 20 years, most currently as director of the U-Link Literacy and Learning Center at University High School. In this role, she has had the goal of providing an environment that offers support for students across all content areas through help with organization, homework, studying, and test-taking strategies.
Jan Meadows – School of Teaching and Learning
Jan Meadows started working part-time at Illinois State University in 2000, teaching courses at night while continuing her teaching career with Unit 5. After retiring from Unit 5, she started supervising student teachers in the Unit 5 PDS program while also continuing to teach classes in the School of Teaching and Learning. She enjoyed working with non-traditional students, including first-generation and older students, and will miss the energy and promise she experienced when talking with senior education students. She continues to stay active in the community as part of the Back 2 School Alliance and Promise Council and looks forward to spending more time with her four grandchildren.
Ronda Wilder – Metcalf School
Ronda Wilder has taught for 39 years total, the last 23 at Metcalf teaching third and fifth grade self-contained classrooms as well as fifth/sixth grade science. She is thankful to have been surrounded by talented teachers she admires and has learned a lot from and recognizes how her many students have touched her life and will forever remain “her kids.” She will always remember the tradition of celebrating her birthday with her students each year and putting a candle in a Twinkie (one of her favorites) for everyone in the class. She looks forward to being able to travel in retirement to visit family and to working on those projects that went ignored while she was teaching.
