MONROE — After 29 years in elementary classrooms, Betsy Cole is retiring.

But, she’ll still be spending a lot of time with kids.

Cole’s six grandchildren live in Tennessee and Ohio. After retiring this week from Monroe Public Schools, Cole and her husband, Audie, plan to visit the grandchildren more often where she’ll go from Mrs. Cole to Ammie.

“We want to go there and help with the kids,” Cole said. “I just want to be Ammie, that’s what they call me. I’m excited to be Ammie.”

Cole spent her entire career at MPS’ Custer Elementary School. The mom of two got into education because it’s a family tradition and also because she wanted to help kids.

“My mom and dad were educators. Both my sisters are teachers; so is my mom’s sister,” Cole said.

Cole taught second grade, kindergarten and a few other grades in the past, but first grade was always her favorite. That’s where she watched students become readers.

“I love the younger kids. They are excited for school and happy to go,” she said. “They used to come into first grade, and they didn’t read at all or were beginning to read. Now, they come in at Level D. In kindergarten, they used to learn letters and sounds. There is so much they get to learn now.”

Cole said first graders advance about six reading levels in one year. In other grades, it’s typically three levels.

“They leave at Level J. It’s doable. That’s my thing,” Cole said. “I just have always loved that.”

Cole wants to continue helping children read. Her daughter, Callie, has been a kindergartner teacher in Perrysburg, Ohio, for 15 years.

“I’d love to be able to just go in and help with the kids in her room and her friends’ rooms. I’d like to help kids that need help reading,” Cole said.

The Coles’ son, Audie, played in the NFL. Today, he lives in Knoxville.

Cole said first grade also is a big year for writing advancement.

“It’s amazing when they come in, how they write. I save samples through the year. At the end of the year, each student takes home every page, so they can see the progress. They don’t believe how they wrote at the beginning. I tell them, look how much you progressed,” Cole said.

One of her biggest career challenges was teaching through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Mrs. (Julie) Lassey and I worked every Sunday night getting ready for the week and getting things into bags. We couldn’t be there on the same day (at first),” she recalled. “The pandemic was the most challenging, doing Zooms and teaching little kids to read and write on Zoom.”

“Building a community” was among her greatest joys.

“That’s really important. I’d go to their sporting events, basketball games, birthday parties, graduations. I’d love to see them smile when I came into their parties. It was just priceless,” Cole said.

Cole grew up in Seattle and moved to Michigan because of her father’s job. She graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a bachelor of science degree in education. Her concentrations were social studies and science.

Cole met her husband, a Monroe native, at EMU. They married in 1985 and moved to Monroe in 1995. When Cole’s mother-in-law volunteered to help her with the kids and her house, she became an assistant at Custer. On the advice of retired Custer teacher, Betty Cady, Cole renewed her expired teaching certificate.

“She said, you’d do a great job,” Cole said.

Subscribe Now: For all the latest local developments, breaking news and high school sports content.

The Coles lived in Monroe County until October, when they moved to Bowling Green, Ohio. Cole’s husband also is close to retirement.

Cole said she’ll miss her colleagues and, especially, the kids.

“I’ll miss the hugs and the kids that come up and want to walk with you out to recess. I was their school mom. Now I’m their school grandma,” Cole said. “The kids make everything else worth it: the meetings, the paperwork. Being with the kids and helping shape their minds, it really is rewarding.”

— Contact reporter Suzanne Nolan Wisler at swisler@monroenews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe Public Schools teacher retires after nearly three decades