Annex Charter School teacher has spent more than a half-century in the classroom

Dean Seward is on his third teaching career and has no plans to retire from a job he loves and greets with renewed enthusiasm each day.
 “It’s the kids that keep me going. I have a passion for teaching,” he said. “I love my kids.”
 Seward, 74, commutes from Ontario, Ore., to Annex Charter School in Annex, Ore., to teach third and fourth-grades. He’s got a high energy level to match the kids in the classroom.
 His demeanor is friendly, but he can also be firm in a decidedly nice way. A banner on the wall of his classroom has words of wisdom: “Teach with passion, manage with compassion.”
 He admits to having some of the same friendly and quiet personality characteristics as Fred Rogers, of “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” TV show fame.
 This is Seward’s 52nd year in education, a tenure few can match anywhere. His teaching career started after he received a bachelor’s degree in education from Northwest Nazarene College in 1967.
 He taught third grade at Aiken Elementary School in Ontario for 31 years and retired in 1998. Many in the profession would have called it good after three decades in the classroom.
 After retiring from full-time teaching, Seward subbed for six years, a journeyman teacher who filled in where needed. He did a four-month term subbing at Huntington, Ore., and was hired as a full-time teacher.

He worked for another 10 years in the small district. He taught Title 1, Special Ed., K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 in the course of those 10 years, then he retired for the second time.
 After subbing for two years, he once again answered the call to serve, this time at Annex. It didn’t take much to get him back into the classroom full-time. Superintendent Steve Bishop offered him the teaching job and he accepted.
 Seward said there’s something special about teaching in small school districts that is particularly satisfying. It feels more like family in small towns. There’s a sense of community with the staff, students and parents.
 He has observed changes in teaching in 52 years. Society has changed and so has the classroom.
 When he started as an educator, the concept of the “nuclear family” was still the norm. Students came from a family unit with two parents. That family structure has changed over the years, and there are more single parents.
 Teaching used to be about the “4Rs,” the basic subjects, but now common core is a different approach to the curriculum.
 There is also technology in the classroom, and even at the third and fourth grades students are proficient at using their Chromebooks.
 Seward spends 30 minutes a day reading to the students. It’s just him sitting on a stool in front of the class reading from a book from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.
 It’s 30 minutes of the day both Seward and the students enjoy. They recently read “Little House on the Prairie.”
 “They don’t do anything else, just listen to me,” Seward said.
 On a recent day, students were busy writing letters, copying in longhand from a standard letter, and seeking donations for a special three-day trip to the Oregon coast in late April. They will get to go to the aquarium at Newport and see other fun sights.
 When the noise level got a bit loud in the classroom, Seward turned down the decibel level. In a calm voice, he said, “fourth graders, I’m hearing too many voices and I need to see you in your seats.”
 There are 85 kids attending Annex school in grades K-8. He has 19 students in his homeroom. When third graders go to another room for reading, Seward teaches other students math. It’s a great method, he said, of rotating the third and fourth graders.
 “It’s a neat thing to see them excited about learning and to be at school,” he said, referring to the kids’ earnest attitudes in the third and fourth grades. “These kids still want to do the best they can.”
 Seward has known generations of students during his long career. One of his current students is a child of a student he had at Aiken Elementary School in Ontario, Ore., when he taught there.
 When the mom learned he was teaching at Annex, she transferred her child to his school and classroom.
 The child was way behind when she joined Seward’s class, but now is caught up and doing well, he said.
 “I have had many children of former students over the years.  It is fun to look at class pictures with them and point out their parents,” he said.
 Seward was born in Nampa and spent time in his youth in Halfway, Ore., an area that is still one of his favorite places to visit. He attended six different schools growing up and followed his dad into the teaching profession.
 His dad, Virgil Seward, earned a master’s degree from the University of Oregon and was a pastor and teacher in Halfway, along with teaching at Melba, Ontario, Pine, Robinette and Portland.
 Seward has been married for 54 years to Janelle. They have two daughters, eight grandkids and two great-grandkids. Besides enjoying teaching, he enjoys spending time with his extended family.
 He works on staying fit by walking two miles every day in Ontario before he commutes to Annex to start the school day. It’s a routine that keeps him thin. He also likes to go hiking and camping in the mountains of eastern Oregon.
 As long as he’s healthy and the students he teaches are making progress, there is no place he would rather be than in the classroom surrounded with kids that show him affection and respect. One even said that “he’s the best.”
 “I’m here for each one of these kids,” he said. “I just love being with kids. It’s not the money. It’s the kids.”