Rees bids farewell

Linda Rees spent more than four decades teaching in three different schools in Winter Garden.

WINTER GARDEN — Before Don Shaw was superintendent of Orange County Public Schools, he served as the principal of Tildenville Elementary School. One of the teachers he hired in 1971 was Linda Rees, a native Winter Garden resident who was to run the migrant pre-kindergarten program.

Rees remembers hopping in a fellow teacher’s yellow Volkswagen Beetle and driving out to the Avalon area, looking for 4-year-olds to participate in the program. She and Mary Silliman had no problem knocking on doors and getting parents’ permission for their children to attend school.

The most she ever had was seven, and her friend, three, so the two teachers combined their charges and had one classroom of 10. Rees and Silliman taught these children of migrant workers how to speak in full sentences, gave them baths and took care of their health in a family-style setting.

EARLY YEARS

This first teaching job brought Rees full circle, as she had been a student at Tildenville Elementary. She stayed there several years — working under principals Shaw and Donald Richardson — before taking a teaching position at Winter Garden Elementary, once located on South Main Street, with principals Evelyn Faust and Thomas Berkner.

This assignment was special, too, because her mother, Laura Johnson, was a substitute teacher there, and her husband, Winter Garden Mayor John Rees, attended WGES as a child. Rees taught first grade, and she remembers her mentor, the late Ruth Hawk, being such an influence on her.

“She really took me under her wing and taught me everything I know,” Rees said. “I think you learn more working with your peers than college ever taught you.”

She also said her class makeup determined how she taught.

At the start of each school year, administrators asked her, “What are you going to do in your classroom this year?” She would reply, “I don’t know; I haven’t met my kids yet.”

In 1974 and 1977, Rees took a year off from teaching after giving birth to her sons, Johnathan and Justin, but then went right back into the classroom.

Teaching in the ’70s and ’80s was different, she said.

“The other teachers were there with you, and you worked together,” she said. “You could be creative, there was more laughter, more fun. The students and the teachers were happier.”

One of her favorite classroom projects involved a homemade incubator and lots of chicken eggs.

“(The students) got so much out of watching those chicks,” Rees said. 

And then she did something no teacher today can do: She sent those baby chicks home with the children.

SECOND HOME

When Winter Garden Elementary closed in 1979, all of the students, administration and teachers moved to nearby Dillard Street Elementary School, previously located across the street from the current DSES.

In her 38 years at Dillard, she served under eight principals: Helen Watson, Jake Voss, Elizabeth Rohrer, Pam McNab, Debra Knerr, Rob Bixler, Mark Shanoff and Katie Boyd.

Rees taught both of her sons, Johnathan and Justin, and a granddaughter, Emily. There are a number of local residents she had in her classroom decades ago and then, more recently, taught their sons or daughters. Her daughter-in-law, Patricia Rees, is a second-grade teacher there.

In her final year of teaching at Dillard, Rees had another full-circle moment. One of her third-grade co-teachers was Drew Cardaci, whom she taught in second grade. 

Looking at her collection of pictures through the years, one notices the difference in student numbers. It was common for Rees to have up to 33 children in her classroom. The class-size reduction amendment, set in 2002, limited that to 18 in the lower grades.

RETIREMENT

Now, she has a “classroom” of one: Her granddaughter, Abigail, a fourth-grader at Dillard, walks over frequently after school, and the two play school and work on homework.

She tried retiring five years ago, but that lasted about a month.

“I just loved work. I love teaching,” she said.

This time, though, is different because she went on leave to help several family members with medical problems.

Rees is one of several teachers in her family. Her mother, grandmother, sister, son, daughter-in-law and two sisters-in-law have taught, and her father-in-law, the late John Rees Sr., was a teacher and principal. 

Teaching is all around her, and she is still trying to get used to retirement. And, it’s hard to ignore the daily reminder that the school day is continuing without her just a block away. From her house, she can hear every school bell that rings.

She busies herself with regular fitness workouts and takes frequent walks around the pond near her house, where she can see the school. 

“I remember looking out the window at the people walking around the pond, and I couldn’t wait to be there,” she said. “Now, I walk it and want to be teaching.”

Rees has considered volunteering with the Winter Garden Art Association or the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation, where she can put her years of teaching experience to good use. She’s an active member of the Bloom & Grow Garden Society and serves on several of its committees.

She and her husband of 45 years have traveled quite a bit and plan to continue their overseas excursions. Next up is a trip to Prague and Budapest. Even her vacations are learning experiences.

Rees always will look back fondly on her teaching career.

“I always taught the kids at a higher level, and I really think that’s how they learn,” she said. They need a firm foundation; if they start behind, they stay behind. 

“That’s what I feel good about, that most of my kids did well and met my expectations.”

Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].

Before the class-size amendment, it was common for Linda Rees to have up to 33 students in her classroom.