Article by Julie (Grade 7) from The Webber Weekly -
Mrs. Rutherford’s mother, growing up, was a teacher, so Mrs. Rutherford did think about choosing a career in teaching off and on.
Before college, Mrs. Rutherford fell in love with Spanish and made up her mind to teach it.
After she graduated from CSU, Mrs. Rutherford taught at Boltz for a couple of years. When Webber opened as a junior high (7th, 8th, and 9th in 1990), she was hired.
Mrs. Rutherford began teaching German and Spanish. She also taught 8th grade English, Health, and ESL (English as a Second Language). Her old room before she taught in the modular that we all know so well, was D18, which is currently Ms. Halter’s room.
Mrs. Rutherford intensely disliked teaching during COVID in 2020, so much that she actually considered leaving Webber to pursue something else. She didn’t, however, want her career to end with COVID, so she stayed.
Mrs. Rutherford left Webber for a little while to stay home with her kids. She also took classes and got certified to teach ESL. During that time, another teacher taught Spanish, but when she left, she asked Mrs. Rutherford if she wanted to come back.
So Mrs. Rutherford returned to Webber, and the change from “junior high” to “middle school” now required her to have more college credits to teach German, so she was forced to give it up.
She continued teaching Spanish 1 and 2, and Ms. Galbavy taught German for a little while. Unfortunately, not enough students were interested in German, so it was eventually decided to be dropped.
Mrs. Rutherford now ends her career as a beloved educator, who is the longest-standing teacher at Webber.
She won’t miss grading papers, but she will miss all of us. She looks forward to having the freedom to do what she wants when she wants.
Her retirement will be bittersweet, but she will be remembered by the students she taught, the teachers she worked with, and the Panther community as a whole.