Tammie Ozanne may be getting ready to retire, but you will still see her at the Mile 108 Elementary.
“I want to be here, just on my own agenda,” she laughed.
Ozanne has been teaching for the past 12 years, her final two were spent in the Grade 2/3 class of Mile 108.
Now that she is retiring, she intends on returning as a volunteer to work with kids who need extra help.
Reading has always been a big part of her classroom, she says. The kids start and finish their day reading and she sends book bags home with them every night.
“I really want to come back and help those kids that need extra support in their reading,” she says.
She has been an important constant for some of her students. But once they realize she’s still going to be around, she says they’re not bothered by her retirement.
“That’s how we want it to be. We don’t want anybody being sad and tearful.”
Ozanne had always wanted to be a teacher, but it wasn’t possible in earlier years. She became a hair stylist instead.
With the help and support of her husband and two sons, she says she was able to go back to school and pursue her dream at 40-years-old.
“I’m just very, very lucky and blessed,” she says.
Looking forward, she says it’s not actually the teaching she’ll miss, it’s the kids.
“When you’ve just helped that child feel more positive about themselves, when you’re really helping to build up their self-esteem… that’s the part I’m really going to miss.”
She says positivity improves brain power and mindfullness and she always tried to make her class a positive environment.
“When I can put smiles on their faces I know I’m doing a good job.”
As passionate as she is about teaching, Ozanne says she had been thinking about retiring for the past six months.
“I have been working full-time since I was 15,” she says. “And it was time for me to just take some time for me.”
She and Mark, her husband of 38 years, are big travellers, she says.
The two plan on visiting one of their sons in Thailand this summer. They may even pop in to explore Greece.
She says she looks forward to being able to spend time with her husband, visit with her sons and five grandchildren and take care of her mother-in-law.
She also plans to indulge in painting and exercising.
“I’ve worked hard,” she says. “I want to be a little selfish.”
When Ozanne looks back on her career she says she has no regrets. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”
beth.audet@100milefreepress.net
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