A family that teaches together …

Katie Peterson '09, JoAnn Peterson '82 and Shannon Peterson '06 all teach at Durham Elementary School in Southlake. (Photo by Jill Johnson)

Fort Worth, TX

1/25/2010

By: Rick Waters, TCU Magazine

The woman on the phone was frantic, going on about uneaten lunches and hurried mornings.

Finally, fourth-grade teacher JoAnn Peterson ’82 got a word in.

“Umm, I think you want to talk my daughter, the first-grade Ms. Peterson,” she said.

The phone went silent for a moment.

“I’m so sorry,” the called said.

“Don’t worry,” JoAnn laughed. “It happens all the time.”

Now, when parents reach Durham Elementary School in Southlake, Texas, and ask to talk to the teacher Ms. Peterson, the response is, “Which one?”

This year, Durham has three who answer to that name – JoAnn, who is in her eighth year at the school and 15th overall; eldest daughter Shannon '06, who has taught for 3 1⁄2 years at Durham; and youngest daughter Katie ’09, who student-taught there a year ago and began as a full-time third-grade teacher in August.

“We get attendance sheets and lunch cards mixed up all the time,” Shannon said. “Even a few phone calls still.”

The Petersons are the only mother-daughter-daughter trio in the Southlake Independent School District and believed to be one of only a few across Texas.

It is an arrangement the three describe as “too perfect.”

“We’re so lucky. We feel incredibly blessed,” said JoAnn. “It’s like something out of a fairy tale to have both my kids here. A lot of parents don’t get to see or talk to their adult children very often, but my classroom is down the hall from Shannon’s, and I get to have lunch with Katie in the cafeteria.”

“I think we all feel a little spoiled,” added Katie, wiping a tear from her cheek.

She stops momentarily. The tears are coming too fast now.

“This is a very good school and a lot of people want jobs in this district,” she said. “Sometimes it’s a lot of stress to do a good job and live up to the reputation of my mom and older sister.”

JoAnn wraps an arm around her daughter. The school year is only a few weeks old, but Katie’s classroom – just off the junction of two hallways in a corner of the building – is organized and well-labeled. Her door features a giant pencil marked by her last name in vertical block letters.

Inside, desks are arranged in clusters of twos and fours, while maps, charts and signs adorn the walls. Behind them are numbered cubbies and color-coded folders. In the corner by the window is a reading nook with plush chair for students to explore books.

The hallways throughout the school are a parade of colors and student artwork. Construction paper masterpieces dangle from the ceiling.

“No one can hug you like your mom,” Shannon said, finding words for the moment. She felt pressure to measure up too when she started at Durham in 2006.

“That’s one of the great things about our being together,” she continued. “Lesson plans go bad and you can feel overwhelmed. But our mom is here and she understands exactly what it’s like.”

“A lot of people my age would hate working at the same place as their mom,” said Katie. “But we see her as our best friend. We tell each other everything. She’s the first person I go to for advice.”

Shannon and Katie talk school and rely on one another, too. The pair carpool together, often laughing and trading stories about the students in their classes, even how to discipline them.

“We kind of rehearse what we are going to say and do,” Shannon said. “Whether it is a parent conference, rules for our classrooms or specific lesson plans, we talk about the job a lot and share ideas.”

“We all love our kids and want them to know it,” Katie said. “I go to sleep thinking about them and what we said in class that day.”

JoAnn says the girls were interested in the profession from a young age, often accompanying her to work and playing “school” at home.

“For birthdays and Christmas, they asked for teaching supplies,” she recalled. “They have three aunts who are teachers too, so they got plenty of charts and stickers.”

Shannon and Katie both declared education as their major on their first day at TCU.

Their fellow teachers at Durham say the Petersons are naturals, although they aren’t all the same in the classroom.

“They have some of the same strengths,” said fourth-grade teacher Rebecca Alexander. “They’re all extremely organized, but their personalities are different.”

Used to corralling the youngest herds, Shannon is the most assertive and firm, Alexander said.

“She is very efficient,” JoAnn said. “She is very confident in bringing order to her classroom.”

Katie is the funniest of the three and has a witty sense of humor, Alexander said, adding that Katie was a quick study as a student-teacher under her tutelage.

JoAnn, who has taught third and fourth grades at Durham, is the quietest and tends to bond with the students who are the most difficult to reach, said fourth-grade teacher Vanessa Cobb.

“She’s the type who can lead or complement,” Cobb said. “She’ll stay until 9 if she has to and never complain. And she can read kids and connect with them.

“She can say to them, ‘I bet you’re feeling pretty frustrated,’ and penetrate right through their shells. She diagnoses and boils down what’s wrong.”

The girls know her well too, admits JoAnn, whose husband Don ’81 was a Horned Frog baseball player and frequent visitor to the trio’s classrooms.

“They can read my moods and body language, and they can detect when something is bothering me,” she said. “And they just come right out and ask me about it.”

Shannon and Katie credit their mother’s versatility and professionalism for opening a door for them in the district.

“There was a time when I think we worried about people dreading another Peterson or wondering if three was too many in one school,” Shannon said. “But we’ve gotten nothing but support from everyone.”

The trio even has nicknames, Cobb said.

“Sometimes they are called ‘Momma Peterson, Middle Peterson and Little Peterson,’ ” she said. “And we know they all went to TCU.”

There are six Frog alums at Durham and the Petersons aren’t shy about boasting where they came from.

“Dale Young [TCU director of student teaching and career services] helped get us into student teaching here,” Shannon said. “He was a great role model. I felt like TCU totally prepared me in every way for my teaching career.”

The Petersons calculate that as many as seven current Durham students could have all three of them before they leave the school – what they call “The Trifecta.”

But the students have some thought of their own about the teaching trio.

“They say we all walk the same,” Katie said. “That’s kind of weird, but I think it must mean we’re okay.”