Searcy teacher named regional finalist

From left, Susan Bucher, McRae Elementary School music teacher, shows second-graders Tripp Bean and Jacob Almond instruments. Bucher, Searcy Public School’s 2016-2017 Teacher of the Year, has been named a regional finalist in the Arkansas Teacher of the Year contest.
From left, Susan Bucher, McRae Elementary School music teacher, shows second-graders Tripp Bean and Jacob Almond instruments. Bucher, Searcy Public School’s 2016-2017 Teacher of the Year, has been named a regional finalist in the Arkansas Teacher of the Year contest.

— One Searcy music teacher said a recent recognition takes her breath away.

Susan Bucher, McRae Elementary School music teacher, has been named a regional finalist in the Arkansas Department of Education’s Arkansas Teacher of the Year competition. Bucher was named Searcy Public Schools’ 2016-2017 Teacher of the Year this spring.

“It’s just amazing,” said Bucher, who got her start in teaching 35 years ago at McRae Elementary. “It’s such an honor, and it’s breathtaking to be considered a finalist among so many talented and wonderful teachers in Searcy. I’m just blown away.”

Bucher will represent the Wilber D. Mills Education Service Cooperative at the Teacher of the Year reception at the Arkansas Capitol on Sept. 28.

“I believe that being an educator is the backbone of society,” she said. “We have an opportunity to help children realize right and wrong, and that we have an opportunity to mold minds and bodies into creative and wonderful citizens, and that we can change our communities and our world one student at a time to make it a better place.”

Bucher was chosen as Searcy Public Schools’ Teacher of the Year by her fellow teachers. She said being active in the community, along with teaching, contributed to the reason she was named a finalist.

She directed the music for Grease at Center on the Square and said she has taught many generations of students in the classroom.

While in college, Bucher originally planned to be a band director. She was encouraged to apply for the elementary position at the school, and once she landed the job, she had “fast learning” to do, she said.

“I had to learn what kind of a curriculum to teach young children,” she said. “I met with other music teachers, and they were very generous in helping me get started.”

She said music education is important to young children because it includes a variety of subjects.

“Music is history, it’s science, it’s social studies, it’s math, it’s reading,” she said. “We cover so many subjects under the umbrella of music that music has been researched and has been proven, scientifically, that it can make a child smarter. Just by listening to it, it can affect how they think, how they feel.”

Bucher said there’s no set approach that she takes when teaching.

“Doing a little bit of everything is the best because what one child enjoys, another may not,” she said. “I do a lot of movement in my classes.”

One method that Bucher uses is turning the treble clef, bass clef and music notes into people. The treble clef is Mrs. Treble Clef, the bass clef is Daddy Bass Clef, and “the quarter note is our best friend; he’s in first grade.”

“I do that because the human brain is a pattern-processing system,” she said. “We take things, and we try to put them into pockets that we recognize so we can remember them better. And so by turning them into children, the kids can relate to it because they’re a child, too.”

Bucher’s classroom includes violins and flutophones. She also teaches one fourth-grade period each day at Southwest Middle School.

“The most important part of my job is to teach children to learn music,” she said. “If they love it, they’re going to hunger for more. You never have [enough] time when you only get to see them for 40 minutes once a week. They are going to want to pursue it further as they get up in a higher grade.”

Bucher said that when it comes to next month’s Teacher of the Year ceremony, she is hoping for the best.

“I am competitive by nature, so I’m going to give it my best, and I just hope and pray that the best person for the job is recognized for that job,” she said. “It’s no small thing to be representative for all the teachers in Arkansas. That is a huge job, and the right person needs to be picked for it.”

Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.

Upcoming Events