By Emily Yager

This school year will be the last year of teaching for two of AHS’s teachers: math teacher Kathy Bradfield and level two and level three special education teacher Bev Shelling are.

Shelling has taught for 39 years, 23 of those in Atlantic.  She’s also taught in Adair Casey, Polk, and Tri Center. At those schools, she taught in the resource room, business education, and reading. She was only nine years old when she decided she was going to be a teacher. “I made wonderful friends here. I really love the people I’m teaching with,” Shelling said. She loved teaching in Atlantic because, “the students I have and the community have been wonderful.” Shelling describes her teaching experience as varied, exciting, and inspirational. “I could write a book of all the memorable moments,” she said. She loves watching the kids feel good about themselves. After retiring, she plans to read, travel, and spend more time with her family. One place in particular she wishes to travel to is Greece.

Bradfield has 25 years of teaching under her belt, 14 in Atlantic. When she began teaching, she taught fourth grade, and later eighth grade. “The town I was teaching in was short a high school math teacher, so they asked me to come up and teach part time.” After teaching for a year on a temporary certificate for math, she went back to college to get the rest of her credentials to get her math endorsement. “So I actually could teach anything kindergarten through high school if I wanted to.” She has taught math for 18 years. Wow, exhausting, and rewarding were three words Bradfield used to describe her teaching experience. She said, “I want to travel with my husband and I want to spend more time with our dozen grandchildren and get the corvette out of the shed more often.”

Make sure you wish a farewell to our beloved teachers retiring.