Mexico Public Schools will welcome back students next week, with classes beginning Aug. 20.

Lots of new teachers will join students in those classrooms, including four teachers new to the profession who sat down to chat with the Ledger about their experiences and desire to become an educator. Two of those teachers grew up here and attended school in Mexico.

Alexis Smythe will be one of those teachers, and she is a fairly recent graduate of Mexico High School - 2024 - and attends Columbia College. She will teach second grade at Eugene Field Elementary School. She has already received her associate’s degree, earning it in June 2024.

“I’m ready to create relationships with the kids because sometimes those kids need it, because they might not have it at home,” she said.

Smythe, like other teachers who spoke with the Ledger, discussed a teacher or teachers who inspired them when they attended school. For Smythe, it was a teacher - Amanda Kinkead - she had in elementary grades.

“I really struggled in elementary school, and she really guided me and helped me and focused on me, I could say,” Smythe said. “She just gave me a lot more confidence than I had in myself.”

Smythe said she always wanted to do some kind of work that involved children, and she likes the younger age group when it comes to where she wanted to teach.

“You kind of get to build them and their confidence and who they are as people, help them grow, I should say,” she said. 

Mitchell Henderson will teach special education at Eugene Field. He is from Fulton, and he started at William Woods and he now attends an online medical academy. He is teaching now with his sub certification and he plans to change his degree now that he is working in the school system and is looking for routes to get his teaching certificate. 

He explained his decision to teach.

“Well, I’ve been working in ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapy as an RBT (registered behavior technician), which is kind of like being a teacher but more focused on behaviors, and I felt like that I could bring some of that knowledge into the school system to help kids really excel, both academically and behaviorally,” he said.

He worked as a paraprofessional a few years ago in Mexico Public Schools, and he is happy to be back and said a lot of people invited him back, including staff at Eugene Field.

“So I’m excited to be back in a professional position,” he said.

Henderson said as he grew up, he realized that some goals are hard to reach - he joked about becoming rich and famous or going to the NBA or something like that - and that it’s more important to find where you fit in. Henderson said teacher pay wasn’t a deterrent in pursuing teaching. 

“I like just helping kids reach their goals and just making sure that school is a place where they can be safe - that’s more rewarding to me,” he said.

Matthew Kimbel, another homegrown teacher, will teach English I and English III at Mexico High School, where he graduated in 2020. He attended the University of Central Missouri and studied middle school theater education. He saw a job opening for the English position here.

“I decided, you know, I might as well come home,” he said. “I love this community. I’ve been involved with Presser (Arts Center) for probably 15 years.”

He is excited to be back in the community and be established here and have an effect on students. He said Karen Ford, who currently teaches family and consumer science at the high school, had an  influence on his decision on his career in education.

“Upon graduating, she pulled me aside and was kind of like, ‘You have a gift for this. This is something that you need to do,’” Kimbel said. After finishing his general education classes at MACC in town, he made the decision in fall of 2022 to go to college in Warrensburg to study to become a teacher.

“I get to start a new chapter in my life here, which I think there’s beauty in the fact that I started here and I’m back here, so there’s that full circle moment here,” he said. “But I’m also excited to bring energy into the classroom in a way that I think students today really, really need.”

He said thinks he will have a good opportunity to connect with students on a different level and bring “Gen Z energy” into the classroom will be beneficial for them and exciting for him.  

“Young people in our community today need connections, they need trust, they need consistency and structure, and if I can provide that - a positive learning environment, a positive place to come every day - I feel like I’m doing my job,” he said, adding that it doesn’t have to be results-oriented but if results are positive, “that’s always a plus.”

McCailyn Drainer will teach kindergarten at McMillan Early Learning Center. Drainer hails from Perry and attended Community R-VI before heading to Westminster College, where she received her degree in early childhood education.

She saw openings for elementary education in Mexico and decided to apply, explaining the district had a good atmosphere. Plus, it was close to home, which was something she was looking for. When she was in high school, she was in the A+ Program as a senior, and she got to work with kindergartners then and her interest for teaching grew from there.

“I knew that teaching was very important and it was something that I could help make a change in a student’s life, and I wanted to be important and I knew that teaching would be one way I could do that,” she said.

She said young children “can be super cute and fun” and they can be excited about learning and to see teachers every day. Drainer wants to be a role model for kids, especially those who may have a difficult home life, and hopes she be someone they can lean on. She recalled teachers in her life - in first grade and high school - who were positive people when she was in school.

Drainer said she is “excited and a little nervous” as the school year begins.

“I’m really excited to grow as a teacher myself and just be able to put all the stuff that I’ve learned throughout the years and actually put it use, to get to be in there and work hands on, have my own classroom and be my own leader and just see where that takes me,” she said.