BOERNE — KENS 5 is celebrating the 20th year of recognizing teachers with the EXCEL Award.
Sue Hall of Fabra Elementary School won this week's KENS 5 Credit Human EXCEL Award and a $1,000 surprise.
Hall has been an educator for 28 years, so it’s no surprise books and children are her passion.
But her career wasn’t always in education. For 14 years, she worked in retail until she found her calling.
“I went back, got another degree and began teaching,” Hall said.
She was a fourth-grade teacher before switching districts to become a librarian at Boerne ISD’s Fabra Elementary School, and ever since, she hasn’t looked back. It's been 18 years.
“You touch lives, you communicate with families, you have a lot of opportunities,” Hall said. “I have the opportunity to see kids grow and mature, I have them essentially for six years, kindergarten through fifth grade, so it’s amazing to watch different families come through and siblings and watch the children grow.”
Her students are just as attached to her. Third-grade students Marlie and Milla say they love reading because of Mrs. Hall.
“She’s going to be something in a memory of our childhood that we’ll remember because she’s going to be the reason we read so much.”
"When she reads all the different books, if someone is mad she does it in a mad voice, and when someone is surprised she does it in a surprised voice,” student Lane Aaron said.
Hall engages their imagination and brings books to life.
“I love the magic that books bring,” Hall said, “I know it’s a healing situation for some kids, an escape for some kids. There’s nothing better than to see yourself in a book.”
Hall says her own children had tremendous teachers, and now she’s just paying it forward.
Not to mention, she says they too teach her a thing or two.
“I've learned about resilience (and) tenacity when I see those who struggle to read, but they are going to get through step by step and they're going to live that story, and that is an amazing thing!"
But if you ask her students, Hall is amazing, and because of her, one day they will excel!
