Teuber celebrates her retirement with teachers and faculty at Moultrie Middle School in Mount Pleasant.
Known as a jokester, life-long adventurer and talented art teacher whose class projects decorate the halls, Claire Teuber left her mark on Moultrie Middle School. As she entered retirement after almost 30 years, the teachers and faculty at Moultrie celebrated her retirement with a drive-thru party.
One of Teuber’s favorite projects to do with her students was a collaborative portrait. She would enlarge a photograph and give each student a section to draw and paint on a small square of plywood. The students wouldn’t know the subject of the portrait until all the pieces were put together. Teuber said throughout the process, she sometimes doubted whether it would turn out all right, but it eventually would and the whole class was very excited when a portrait finally came together.
Over the years, her students completed portraits of Malala Yousafzai, Clementa Pinckney, Chief Joseph, Teddy Roosevelt, Rosa Parks and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The students’ most recent portrait was of Teuber herself, a surprise for her retirement.
Claire Teuber’s students created a portrait of Teuber and her cat to celebrate her retirement.
After spending so many years with middle schoolers, Teuber has many memories and funny stories to tell. “The absurdity cracks me up,” she said.
She remembers two of her students, who never got along with each other, walked into her classroom one day. One of them shouted, “Something stinks,” and the other responded with “you stink” which, of course, bothered that student. She couldn’t help but laugh when she tried to explain to him that if she yelled that at the faculty meeting, she would probably receive the same response.
Another time, two young men were walking down the hallway wearing shorts; she said Mount Pleasant boys wear shorts all the time even in the freezing weather. One was messing with the other, and she asked what was going on and he said the other student told everyone he has a prosthetic leg, which clearly didn’t make sense. She said that was one of many crazy, odd things she had heard throughout the years.
“I know people always say they (middle schoolers) are a pain in the butt, but I think they’re a real treat. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes they will be a pain in the butt,” Teuber said.
She said there are moments where it’s easy to get frustrated with students’ behavior, but looking back over her career, the aspect that really stands out is how truly earnest her students were about what they were learning.
Because she has taught for so many years at Moultrie she sometimes runs into former students.
Claire Teuber covered in silly string at her retirement party.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at the Harris Teeter or some place and some man will come up to me and say, ‘I was in your 8th grade art class and I just want to apologize,’” Teuber said.
Teuber recently moved to Brevard, North Carolina, but while she was still in Mount Pleasant, one of her neighbors was a former student who is now a mom with two kids. She still refused to call “Ms. Teuber” by her first name.
Two former students, Jessica Lamberson and Matthew Lee, are now teachers at Moultrie Middle.
Lamberson said Teuber is one of those teachers students never forget. “She was that teacher that became kind of like a family member while you were at school,” Lamberson said.
Lamberson has taught 7th grade science at Moultrie Middle for three years. When she returned to Moultrie as a teacher, she said Teuber made her “feel at home again.”
Teuber said Moultrie feels like a tight-knit family. Last December, when Teuber was diagnosed with breast cancer, she said the school community was extra helpful.
“They did everything but stand on their heads and they would have done that, too, if I’d ask them,” Teuber said. “They’re just really solid, true and loyal friends and I’m going to miss the heck out of them.”
Lynne Tart, a Spanish teacher at Moultrie for nine years, said she will miss eating lunch with Teuber, who she described as artistic and talented in many different ways.
Teuber visited Tart the day after her son was born to photograph her newborn baby. Now, Tart’s 8-year-old son retells many of Teuber’s jokes that she shared with him over the years.
“She will be missed, her spirit, her humor. We’re going to miss her,” Tart said.
From day one, Teuber has felt like the community at Moultrie has embraced her, even though she considers herself a “wild-card.”
“Instead of making me feel that I was the odd man out, they made me feel that my differentness was a special thing,” Teuber said. “They do that for kids all the time.”
Teuber is beginning the next phase of her life in a log cabin near Pisgah National Forest. She will be creating many projects of her own, including stain glass windows and woodcarving. One aspect she’ll miss is not having the occasional run-in with a student in Mount Pleasant. She said the atmosphere at Moultrie Middle School is “second to none.”
“It’s just a warm, welcoming place. I think the kids feel that,” Teuber said. “My hope for it is that it keeps going on like that.”
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December 30, 2020 at 09:00PM
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