3 students recognize teacher who taught them English, lots more

Fort Morgan Middles School teacher Carolyn Klimper works with students like these three Somali teens to help them learn and be able to read and write English. From left, are: Faisal Aden, 14, Elmi Hussein, 13, Klimper and Hassan Yusuf, 14. They each wrote letters nominating Klimper for the 2014 Student Choice Crystal Apple award, which she won. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

By Jenni Grubbs
Tuesday, April 22, 2014

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The letters three Somali students wrote to nominate Carolyn Klimper for the Student Choice Crystal Apple Award nearly left her in tears.

"She is dedicated to her students and their families," 13-year-old Elmi Hussein wrote. "Mrs. Klimper visits my family for dinner, and she respects my mom and my family. She talks about my grades and she also hugs my mom. Mrs. Klimper likes everyone the same. She doesn't like people better if they are Christian or Muslim. She doesn't think white are better than black. She likes us all."

"Some people might be like, 'I can't teach kids how to speak English.' Not Mrs. Klimper. She is like, 'I can teach kids how to speak English.'" 14-year-old Hassan Yusuf wrote. "She is energetic and she never gets lazy when you don't understand things. Some students don't understand things easily. She doesn't give up on them; she will keep telling you until you get it."

"The first reason why I suggest Mrs. Klimper is she makes a difference by helping you understand what you're saying and what you're looking for," 14-year-old Faisal Aden wrote, also mentioning his teacher's positive attitude and flexibility.

Klimper laughed at that last reason, which in class she intended to teach him as being willing to change things to fit the situation, but he was using the word in a different, but still accurate, way in his letter.

"She can do the splits and touch her toes which some people can't do," Aden wrote.

What Klimper finds amazing is how well these students were able to express their thoughts in their nomination letters — and written in English.

In less than two years, Aden, Hussein and Yusuf have acquired enough English to be able to do that and to hold their own during a recent interview with a newspaper reporter about why they nominated their teacher for Crystal Apple.

Klimper told them all she was proud of them and thanked them for their kind words.

"I wish people knew that about my kids, how much they've learned," Klimper said. "All my students are amazing."

Klimper co-teaches seventh-grade writing and reading intervention at Fort Morgan Middle School and frequently works with English language learners from different countries, like her three nominators. She also teaches eighth-grade language arts and literacy classes and works with a mixture of seventh- and eighth-grade students at the Migrant Education Newcomers Academy, helping them acquire English and learn social and cultural awareness skills.

"Getting Crystal Apple by the students, it's totally different," Klimper said. "I feel very honored, but truly the award belongs to them. They're the crystals, when you look at their past, what they've gone through to get here, and that they've had to learn English in less than two years."

After her nominators heard about her winning the award, Klimper said Faisal squealed, "Somebody listened to me!"

She said she was trying to teach her students about becoming a part of the community, so having someone listen to him and take his advice was a big deal for Faisal, as well as for his fellow students, who often feel like they are not being heard.

"One thing I hope to instill in the kids is to advocate for yourself," Klimper said.

Knowing how and when to ask for help and how to get information is important for all students, and even more so for those new to this country and the English language, she said.

"It's been such a privilege to get to work with these students," Klimper said. "They're the ones who amaze me, how much they've grown."

She said she wishes all her students had "their outlook on life, of 'what can be learned and how can we improve.'"

Klimper and her family moved to Fort Morgan in 2009, coming from McCook, Neb. She and Preston have been married for 24 years. Together they raised 19-year-old University of Colorado at Denver student Trenton and 16-year-old Fort Morgan High School student Mikayla.

Carolyn Klimper grew up in Yuma, though, so "being here in Fort Morgan is kind of like being back home," she said.

She went to Northeastern Junior College and the University of Northern Colorado and earned a master's degree from the University of Phoenix.

The Fort Morgan school district hired her 2009, and she now is in her 24th year of teaching.

She previously taught kindergarten and first grade for 11 years, followed by a year teaching fourth, fifth and sixth grades to students from Mexico at a country school.

Next, she helped create an English language learners program at the public schools in McCook, which is what she did until moving to Fort Morgan, where she said Ben Bauman recruited her.

"I've had great experiences here," Carolyn Klimper said.

And her students obviously have had some great experiences working with her.

"Mrs. Klimper is a really good teacher for teaching me English," Yusuf said during the interview. "When I came here, I didn't know anything" with that language.

"I learned how to read and how to speak very well," Hussein said of what Carolyn Klimper taught him.

"The first thing she taught me was how to write and how to pronounce stuff, like homonyms and homophones," Aden said.

He said his teacher deserved the Crystal Apple award, and that was why the three of them wrote the letters

"I think she deserves the award because she's a great teacher," Aden said. "She teaches us stuff that a lot of the other people don't. She knows a lot of stuff."

Contact Times Staff Writer Jenni Grubbs at [email protected], follow @JenniGrubbs on Twitter or check out tout.com/jennigrubbs

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