Episode 90: Teaching, Retirement & Winning the High Seas with Cindy LeBeouf

Good afternoon and welcome to the Overruled podcast, brought to you by the Scott Vicknair Law Firm. I am your host, David Vicknair, along with our guest today, a very special guest. As some of you may or may not know, our firm, for now two years going on three, we’re currently in the middle of accepting nominations for our High Seas and ABCs giveaway, where we select one local educator to win a cruise for them and a guest. I’m happy to be here with Cindy LaBuff. Cindy, thank you so much for being on the Overruled podcast and thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Okay, Cindy, you taught for 33 years, we were chatting before we went on air, my mom also taught for 33 years, she went through the whole three years of that. What are some of the biggest takeaways you loved about being a teacher for 33 years, and the things you think you’ll miss a little now that you’re moving into retirement?

Well, the takeaways, and the things I’ll miss most, are the children, first and foremost. Over the 33 years I taught first grade all of those years, also taught summer school programs, after-school tutoring programs, adult education classes where adults were coming back to earn a GED. So I had that broad spectrum of working with many ages, but the little kids, those first graders, my heart will always be there, right there. So that’s one thing, the takeaway is just the love and the closeness with the children, the relationships that are going to last forever, that’s what I’ll miss most.

Yeah, and it was such a unique coincidence that when we selected you as the winner, Cindy, my grandmother on my dad’s side, I don’t know if we ever talked about this, but my mom, Emma, she actually went to St. Charles Elementary, she was one of the first students there, whatever it had. And it just coincidentally happened that you were the winner of this competition, so for me it was very meaningful on a personal level because I knew all this history about St. Charles Elementary. I think back then my mom actually graduated, it was up to K-12, so she was one of the first graduates up to 12th grade, I think she was the.

Are you correcting me?

No, that was right.

My dad was looking at me like I’m wrong, and he’s usually the one to correct me, my dad started telling me all this stuff when you won, and my mom was getting into it too, so it was really neat that the winner happened to be from a school that had a connection to me on a personal level through my family’s history. And it was also neat that this happened right around your retirement, isn’t that crazy?

Crazy, biggest shock, I still am in shock, when I got the knock on the door that morning, it was my second-to-last day of teaching, when she knocked and I opened and recognized your mom right away, then you started explaining, I was just standing there thinking, this can’t be real, this can’t be real, and it’s real, I just got off the ship on Sunday, went on that cruise, so it was real.

And a lot of the school was in on the surprise, right, was the principal in on it?

One of your coworkers, a teacher, nominated you for the award, and I believe a lot of the other teachers and staff were in on it, I think even the kids?

The kids were not in on it, but my coworkers were, I was nominated by Cameron Gidry, who I worked closely with in the classroom, she’s a para, and I admire her as well, it was such a shock, I did not know I was nominated, it was a total surprise, it was astounding.

So tell us about the cruise, you just got back, when did you go, where did you go?

The cruise was fabulous, we went last week, we were on Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas, sailed to Honduras, Costa Maya, and Cozumel, oh my, unbelievable, it was our first cruise, so we weren’t really sure what to expect, but it was way more than what we were prepared for, the food, the entertainment, the activities on board, the people we met, the staff of Royal Caribbean made sure everything was taken care of. Also Jennifer Birk with the travel agency, she set everything up, it was problem-free, everything went smoothly, she did a great job with reservations and advice on what we should be doing, it was just perfect, a wonderful way to feel retired.

Amazing. The winner we selected last year, now that we’re doing this two years, going into our third year, you can just tell, I told Miles last year, I was like, we picked the right person, because you could see all your coworkers were so invested in you as a person and how wonderful a teacher you’d been, a friend and coworker of theirs, they felt strongly about you in a positive way and were really excited for you. I felt that same thing when we awarded the teacher of the year before, the first time we did this, you could just tell, my mom, we left there and she said, we picked the right person. My mom, being so close to Thibodaux, knows a lot of the teachers, including Miss LaBuff, my kindergarten teacher at St. Joseph in Thibodaux was Miss LaBuff, and her daughter, Becky, is now at St. Charles Elementary too, I ran into Becky while we were there, so many funny little connections.

Actually, I ended up at St. Charles my last two years of teaching, 31 of my years I spent at Bayou Blue Elementary, first grade as well there, and moved on my last two years and ended up at St. Charles, which was a great way to finalize everything and wrap it up.

Yeah, and it’s just amazing that it happened right around your retirement.

Yes.

What are you looking forward to in retirement, what are your plans?

No big plans yet, looking forward to some downtime, family time, because in this career it takes a lot of your free time to dedicate to lesson planning and being as prepared as you can for the kids, it consumed evenings, weekends, so now I have all that time free, just kind of easing into enjoying family time and things we put off before because of work, but now we’re able to do.

Well, after 33 years, and I’ve never taught myself, my dad taught for a while at the beginning of his career before he went into insurance, and my mom taught for 33 years, you’ve taught for 33 years, I’ve heard a lot of it, but I’m curious your perspective, for some of our listeners, what are some of the challenges and things people don’t know about teaching, like when I was younger I remember my mom would always work late, she wasn’t getting paid for that, do aftercare things she didn’t have to, go the extra mile. Could you explain a little to our listeners what you saw, in an extraordinary way, from you and your colleagues over those 33 years, so people could really take into account how far an extra mile teachers really go for our kids?

Well, I think it’s the ever-changing demand on what teachers are expected to accomplish, so many of the things we’re asked to do go far beyond just classroom time, you have to put in those extra hours to get it done, it’s not a job where you can punch the clock and be in and out, it’s something you constantly have to deal with and prepare for. So time constraints and the demands, that’s one thing, also classroom sizes, teachers are having to do all this with more and more children each year, it’s tough when you have 26, 28 little ones you have to prepare individually for, each one’s individual needs, that’s a job in itself that’s astronomical, a lot of teacher burnout because you want to do your best and want to do it all, and it’s tough.

Yeah, a small little anecdote I thought of while we were chatting, my law partner Brad Scott’s from Bayou Blue.

Okay, you taught at Bayou Blue Elementary too.

So a lot of small coincidences there. One last question, do you have a favorite book, Miss LaBuff, whether personally, or one you used with the kids or for lesson plans, one of your own personal favorite books? I always like to ask guests if they have a favorite book, because there may be a book someone listening would like, or one you liked with the kids they could use for nighttime reading with their own kids.

Well, the book that comes to mind is Oh, the Places You’ll Go. One thing some parents do now is send that book to school at the end of each school year and have the teacher write a little note to their child, and they gift this to the child at graduation, so they have notes from the teachers they’ve had along the way, wishing them well, and the places they’ll go, that’s pretty special.

Yeah, that’s pretty special, have you seen a lot of parents do that now?

Oh, quite a few, it’s becoming more and more popular, yes.

That’s a really neat idea. Well, thank you so much, Cindy, for being here, Miss LaBuff, our winner of our second annual High Seas and ABCs, I’m so glad you enjoyed the cruise, it’s the least of what you deserve for an incredible 33-year career, really making an impact on so many kids in our local community.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, thanks for coming, like we said, there’s no strings attached.

No strings attached, none.

And Miss LaBuff couldn’t believe it was happening, and nobody ever can, so pretty soon we’re going to have a new winner and it’ll probably be the same thing, they’re going to think it’s a scam, but there are no strings attached, and I hope everybody goes online and clicks the link and nominates that educator who stands out and deserves the next cruise.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much, and thanks to all of you for listening, it’s been a great discussion with Miss LaBuff, talking about our High Seas and ABCs competition and the impact of local educators on our communities. Thank you for listening to the Overruled podcast, brought to you by the Scott Vicknair Law Firm, we’ll see you next time.

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