“If you love them, they will learn,” Donna Miller said. Other than taking time off to raise her sons, Miller has been teaching at Burcham Elementary since 1990, and, she has taught 1st grade for all but three years.
Miller grew up in Lockne, Texas, and she came to Weatherford for college. While attending SWOSU, she met her husband Rick Miller. “I came to Weatherford when I was 18, and now Weatherford is home,” Miller said.
Along with teaching at Burcham, Miller also coached the high school cheer squad for 22 years but recently retired from that position. “I’m just enjoying my time with my grandkids,” she said.
One of her grandkids, Scout Miller, even gets to go to school with her grandmother each day. “Scout is in first grade, but I’m not her teacher,” Donna Miller said. Along with seeing her granddaughter at school, Miller also gets to teach alongside her daughter-in-law, Rebecca Miller.
Miller said going to school with her family is “the best.” She said, “It’s exciting to watch them grow, learn how to read and get smarter.”
With her experience, Miller said she has seen education “go in a circle.” She explained some of the methods that were popular when she started teaching are the standard once again.
Along with teaching methods, the students Miller teaches have come full circle. “I’m to the point where I’m teaching the kids of my former students,” she said.
This very scenario is playing out with Kyle Yoder, one of her 1993-94 first grade students.
Yoder is a 2006 Weatherford High School graduate, and he played football at SWOSU after high school and then moved to Oklahoma City to wrestle for his final years of college.
After spending time in Oklahoma City, Yoder and his wife Kelley quickly moved back to their hometown. “We both believed Weatherford was the only place to raise kids,” Yoder said.
This year, Yoder and his son Kade get to have a special experience as part of the Weatherford school system because Miller now is Kade’s 1st grade teacher for 2022-23.
In honor of the intergenerational experience, Yoder did a phone interview with WDN and shared some of his memories from his time as a student with Miller.
“My favorite memory from 1st grade with Mrs. Miller was making friends who I still have today. There are classmates I had then who I’m still close with today,” Yoder said.” I still know all of them.”
One event happened the next year also was very memorable for Yoder as well as the rest of the state, but it was a dark time for Oklahoma. “The Oklahoma City bombing happened the next year when I was in 2nd grade,” Yoder said. He remembers being in Arapaho for an outing, and Miller and other teachers lined up all the students and tried to keep everyone calm and tell them what happened.
Yoder recalled the way Miller also helped him personally deal with challenges when he was a 1st grader. “The year I had Mrs. Miller, I was going through a difficult situation, and it was really rough on me but Mrs. Miller was always there for me,” Yoder said. “One thing about Mrs. Miller is she is very understanding; she is very caring, very patient with the kids.”
This compassion towards the class revealed itself even in the advice Miller had for younger teachers. “Treat them like family,” she said. “Stay positive. Have fun with the kids and show them respect.”
Along with learning those character qualities Mrs. Miller shows to her kids, Yoder said he hopes his son grasps the foundational educational lessons too. “Like every parent, I just want my kid to do well and learn the basics of reading and writing and math. I hope he can understand that and learn it and carry it on to the next year,” he said.
That learning is sure to take place in Miller’s classroom because those foundational moments have been some of her most special memories. “You can see the excitement in their eyes when they learn how to read,” Miller said. “You can just see when it clicks. That’s one of my favorite parts.”
With Yoder’s hopeful attitude and Miller’s compassionate experience, the school year is sure to have good things in store for Kade and the other students at Burcham.