As a special education teacher, Teresa Kindred knows understanding the students and having patience are key.

During her 31 years in education, those haven’t been difficult tasks.

“If you understand the student and figure out what their needs are, you can get them to a behavior that’s appropriate,” she said. “Most of us act out when we’re uncomfortable or we need something.”

Patience also has come naturally.

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“There are some people who have to work hard to be patient, and they deserve credit,” she said. “But it’s not hard for me, so I take no credit for that. God blessed me with that.”

At the end of the school year, Kindred will retire from her job at Brownstown Central Middle School.

She said she hopes her replacement, Amanda Newby, will have a similar approach with special education students.

“I said, ‘Take care of them because they are in a good place right now, and they are achieving. Make sure they stay in that good place and achieve,’” Kindred said. “I think it’s good that a new person is coming along because it’s always good to have new ideas and different ways of doing things because my way is not necessarily the best way or the only way.”

After graduating from Brownstown High School in 1978, Kindred earned her bachelor’s degree in art education from Oakland City College.

She then did substitute teaching and odd jobs before landing a full-time teaching job at Muscatatuck State Developmental Center in Butlerville. Her brother, Barry Kindred, worked there at the time and let her know about an open teaching position.

Kindred taught young adults with special needs for a couple of years while working toward her master’s degree in special education from Indiana University.

Then in the late 1980s, she became a special education teacher at Brownstown Elementary School, working with students with physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities.

In the early 2000s, she split her time teaching at the elementary and middle schools. She wanted to stay in one place, so she chose the middle school.

That gave her an opportunity to work with students she taught at the elementary.

“I’ve known these kids since first grade, and to see them through elementary and then into middle school, it’s nice,” Kindred said. “It feels like a family because you get to know them, and you get to know their families, and I have been very fortunate to have, I think, the best students in the middle school. They are blessed with good families, and that makes it easy to deal with.”

Each year, she had about 10 students in her classroom. Some are in her class for a period or two, while some spend the whole day there.

“I like working with the kids, talking with the kids, helping them get their lessons,” she said. “Sometimes, in the middle of a lesson, a question about life or something comes up, and you get to talk about things that are important about growing up and being mature and being successful in life.”

Kindred also has had at least one classroom aide. One of them, Rena Hall, worked with her for about 20 years until retiring last year.

This school year, she has three personal aides, Charity Clodfelder, Jamie Durham and Ricky Amers, who work one-on-one with students, and a classroom aide, Crystal Thomas, who helps with a variety of students.

They all said Kindred has made an impact on the students.

“She has probably more patience than anyone that I’ve ever worked with as a co-worker. It’s amazing. She’s awesome,” said Clodfelder, who has been a personal aide for two years. “The relationship that she has with each individual student, it’s not, ‘This is how I do it. It’s standard.’ She adjusts for every student.”

Thomas, who has worked with Kindred for a year-and-a-half, said Kindred helps each student achieve their personal, social and lifestyle goals.

“She accommodates from where they come in at and adjusts how things need to be adjusted so they can learn,” Thomas said.

Durham has been in the classroom since November and said she has been impressed with how Kindred interacts with the students.

“This is totally new to me, so she has already taught me just tremendously on how to help with the kids and how to manage the kids,” Durham said. “She has taught me a lot.”

Kindred found her niche in special education.

“Sometimes, with the special education students, when something happens, it’s because you really worked to make it happen, and the student really worked hard to make it happen,” she said. “For a lot of kids, learning is easy. For these guys, sometimes, it’s not, so it’s rewarding when something happens. And it’s fun.”

Kindred said she doesn’t take credit for everything that goes on in her classroom; it also takes aides, cafeteria workers, janitorial staff and office personnel.

“They are in their positions doing the best they can, and if I need help, they help me; if they need help, I help them,” Kindred said. “We work together. We work as a team. It’s not just me. It takes all of us working together.”

That’s something she said she will miss upon retirement.

“I like working with the students, and I’m going to miss them. It’s going to be weird when fall rolls around and I’m not buying school supplies,” Kindred said. “I’ve been blessed to go to school in a good community and come back and teach in this good community. That’s great.”

If it wasn’t for her health, Kindred said, she would teach forever.

“But I don’t think I can do that because I’m wearing out physically,” she said. “There have been times when my job has been demanding physically. At the state hospital, a lot of my students were in wheelchairs, so I did a lot of lifting, a lot of physical stuff.”

Once she is retired, Kindred said she will have more time to spend with her family.

Several of her family members have had ties to education. Her late sister, Beth Kindred, steered her toward becoming a teacher; her late father, Ralph Kindred, was a janitor at the middle school for many years; her sister, Sherry Steward, helps the middle school janitorial staff; and her second cousin, Harry Rochner, is retiring this fall after more than 25 years as the school corporation’s business manager.

Kindred also plans to make time for her hobbies.

“I can catch up on my Kindle reading and read some of those books I’ve downloaded,” she said. “And I’ve been working on my family tree, and that’s interesting.”

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Name: Teresa Kindred

Age: 55

Hometown: Brownstown

Residence: Brownstown

Education: Brownstown High School (1978); Oakland City College (bachelor’s degree in art education, 1982); Indiana University (master’s degree in special education, 1989)

Occupation: Retiring after 31 years in education, including the past 28 years at Brownstown Central Community School Corp.

Family: Brothers, Terry Kindred of Brownstown and Barry Kindred (deceased); sisters, Sherry Steward of Vallonia, Sue Siefker of Seymour and Beth Kindred (deceased); sister-in-law, Ruby Kindred; and parents, Ralph and Mary Kindred (both deceased)

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