Amy Schweitzer had never imagined her life turning out the way it is now. Her love of mathematics had originally drawn her toward a career in accounting. However, after having children, her interest in pursuing a career in education peaked.
She now teaches kindergarten through eighth grade at Verona Mills School, a small, one-room schoolhouse in the outskirts of Bad Axe.
As a schoolhouse teacher, she is the “jack of all trades,” spending her time teaching her students core curriculum such as math, science, social studies, reading and writing, but also working as a nurse, counselor, principal and gym teacher.
These tasks, she says, would be impossible without the help of Verona’s two full-time teacher’s aides, Nancy Booms and Audrey Siemen.
“I couldn’t do it without them,” Schweitzer said. “They are super supportive and I appreciate them so much.”
Despite the many other duties that come with being a schoolhouse teacher, Schweitzer says her main goal is to simply teach the students their curriculum and to help them become successful in high school and successful in society.
In the beginning, Schweitzer said she never pictured herself working at a schoolhouse teaching such a wide age range of students.
She was student teaching in Bad Axe when she heard about a position at Kipper School, a schoolhouse near Harbor Beach, opening up. She applied and got the job, starting her elementary teaching career.
She taught at Kipper for three years, before she started teaching at Verona Mills School.
Thirteen years later and Schweitzer says that she wouldn’t change a thing.
“The whole rural school setting is memorable in and of itself,” she said. “I just love the whole experience of it.”
Schweitzer describes the school’s atmosphere as that of a family. She says the older students are always looking after the younger ones at school. She also says that because she generally has her students for nine years, she gets to really know both her students and their families.
When she had heard that she had received the Extraordinary Educator Award, she had immediately thought about the amazing families she has supporting her.
“For them to take the time out of their personal day to nominate me for something like that, I’m like, ‘That’s so sweet.’ It just shows what a great community we have in our school,” she said.
Schweitzer says some of the most rewarding experiences as a teacher for her have been to watch her students grow from year to year.
“When you have a student who is really struggling with something and they find a way to help them overcome that difficulty,” she said. “I think that would probably be the most rewarding. Just those experiences of watching the students grow.”
For anyone hoping to pursue a career in education, Schweitzer encourages them to not get discouraged by the amount of paperwork that comes with the job.
“Your heart is into working with the kids and you just want to work with them and help them and teach them, but you do get overwhelmed and bogged down with a lot of paperwork,” she said. “But it’s God’s plan to educate children and stick with that and make the biggest difference you can.”