David Copp introduced Joan Brode with this speech:

        Joan began her career an undefined number of years ago as a Kindergarten teacher in the Oak Park school district.  After taking some time off to raise her family, she returned to teaching, this time in Royal Oak.  She worked for one year, splitting time between Parker and Longfellow, then transferred to Whittier where she has remained for the last 14 years.  Joan was never “promoted” beyond Kindergarten, her first and only assignment and also her first and only love.

        Joan says that she never had any desire to teach anything but Kindergarten because it is a “happy job”.  No matter what her mood, her class always lifted her spirits.  No matter what she did in class, kids of that age were always impressed.  As far as Joan is concerned, there couldn’t have been a better assignment for her.

        Joan is perhaps best known to others and best remembered by her students for her “Letter People”.  From Miss A, who says, “achoo”, to Mr. Z, who has zipping zippers, Joan has characters in her room for each letter of the alphabet.  The vowels are women and the consonants are all men.   It’s quite a sight to see Joan all dressed up as Miss A with tissues pinned all over her outfit!

        Another of Joan’s talents that came in handy for teaching Kindergarten was playing the piano.  Her tunes were so compelling that at times, she would start to play and the class next door would sing along!   It sure is wonderful to have classrooms without walls and doors, isn’t it?

        A few other highlights of Joan’s classes include: making applesauce, when the wonderful aroma from the teacher’s lounge spread throughout the building;  kids climbing in the big spaceship to Mars; and taking her class on tours of the building with a parade of five-year-olds following her to the office and other sites around the building.

        It takes a special kind of person to teach Kindergarten.  Joan has shown she has incredible patience, nurturing skills, and a keen understanding of how the mind of a five-year-old works.  I have a couple of examples of just how those minds do work.  One day when Joan was absent, another Kindergartner in Alicia Linderman’s class walked by Joan’s room on the way to the restroom.  After seeing the sub, he came running back to Mrs. Linderman and exclaimed, “Mrs. Brode doesn’t look like Mrs. Brode today!”  More recently, an older student was writing a note to Joan and signed her name in cursive.  After thinking for a moment, this student asked, “Since Mrs. Brode only teaches Kindergarten, does she know how to read cursive?”   It takes a lot of talent to teach kids that are at that level, and Joan has plenty to spare.