‘Love you, bye’ guides her teaching

It was a Freudian slip of sorts. John Long Middle School teacher Robin Morgan always says, “Love you, bye” at the end of conversations with her family.

This time, she accidentally said it to a student. He was a bit taken aback, but didn’t make anything of it.

“The next day he put a Hershey bar on my desk,” Morgan said. She was perplexed.

“He said, ‘I was going to kill myself last night,’” she said, but he didn’t because Morgan said she loved him.

Morgan knew the 13-year-old sixth-grader had some issues but had no idea he was in that dark of a place.

Morgan then understood the power of her words. She now says that phrase regularly to her students, and she means it.

“Yes, you need to know that I love you and I’ll work hard for you,” she said, “and I expect you to work hard for me.”

Morgan, who teaches technical education and has a license for reading instruction and intervention, puts her dedication and time where her words are, and it’s being recognized. A parent nominated her for a Kohl Teacher Fellowship, and Morgan was one of 100 teachers to receive the honor from more than 1,200 applicants.

“Mostly, I’m grateful,” Morgan said of the honor. “I’m aware of how incredible a lot of my colleagues are. I’m grateful that I have children who make me look good.”

The Kohl Teacher Fellowship recognizes educators’ “ability to inspire a love of learning, motivate students and lead both inside and outside the classroom,” according to a Herb Kohl Foundation release. Each school and each teacher receives $6,000 for the honor.

This was Morgan’s second nomination. In completing paperwork for the application, she especially enjoyed the self-reflection portion.

“Am I teaching correctly? Am I nurturing growth?” she said. “That was really a wonderful way to view it.”

John Long Principal Chris Weiss said Morgan’s commitment and versatility sets her apart.

“Through her relationships, she binds our students, school and community together with joy, excitement and meaningful partnerships,” he said.

“Most people would find it a challenge to be a fixture in the parent drop-off line, in the classroom, running reading interventions, organizing with the Grafton Chamber of Commerce and having individual student Zoom calls. However, that represents an average week for Ms. Morgan. She is the only STEM teacher I’ve ever met with a reading license. She’s truly a unicorn, and the Grafton School District is lucky to have her.”

Morgan said she likes the variety of going from reading interventions to teaching applied engineering.

“It’s helpful because I get to see different aspects of my students,” she said.

Growing up, Morgan didn’t see education as her career, however. She was born on a Naval base in San Diego. Her father was a helicopter mechanic who later took a job with Miller Engineering and Research Corp. on the East Coast. Her father died unexpectedly, and her family moved to Florida before coming to Wisconsin.

“By the time I was in middle school, I had been in 11 schools,” she said.

That difficult childhood, she said, is “one of the things that helps me be there for my students.”

Morgan was the top graphics student in the state at Milwaukee Tech High School, A scholarship helped her study graphic design and printing at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She quickly learned that industry was essentially sales, which she was good at but disliked.

She took a storytime class that required reading to toddlers at the library for 90 minutes. The book never took that long, so Morgan let her creative juices flow.

“I was making games and teddy bears. I was so hooked,” she said.

She found that her credits in graphics transferred to technical education.

“It would be so fun teaching people to learn better while playing with tools,” she said. “I couldn’t wrap my head around somebody buying a billboard, but I could nag someone to make a better project.”

She lives that mission. Morgan said she is willing to grade a project 12 times “until it’s right.”

Morgan went on to earn a master’s degree from Cardinal Stritch in reading and learning disabilities. She taught in South Milwaukee and Milwaukee before coming to Grafton 19 years ago, long enough to teach children of former students she calls her “grand students.”

She holds a reality day, giving students real-life scenarios, and even accidentally played matchmaker once. Two students who had been friends since they were 6 were married in the simulation. They ended up dating and later got married, and both earned doctorates in different fields.

The unique relationships Morgan develops with the teens continue past eighth grade. She buys grad grams for all her former students, even searching for ones who moved away.

That sixth-grader with the candy bar grew up to become a well-adjusted adult with a family.

“Many people can identify the one teacher who made a difference in their lives,” Weiss said. “For countless people, that is Ms. Morgan.”