She told her students that because lockers had not yet been assigned, she wouldn't be passing out the big, heavy literature textbooks. She instead passed out index cards and a drawing of the outline of a head.

The index card was for the student's name and one bit of information about them "I need to know," Murchison said. To stress her point and give them an example, Murchison told the students something about her she believed they needed to know: She is hearing-impaired.

"Let me tell you something about me. I don't have an eardrum in one ear and wear a hearing aid in the other," she said. "I can pretty much read lips, but if you need to get my attention just raise your hand."

Students were paying attention, and she went on, telling them the day's objective was written on the right side of the whiteboard. Friday's objective was to "generate symbols which define your personality." Students had to color the symbols, too.

"Since I would not ask you to do something I wouldn't do, here are my symbols," she said, holding up a completed face.

"My hair is orange, because it's a cheerful color and I'm a cheerful person. I have a red heart because I'm a family-oriented person and I'm passionate about my family: my husband, two grown children, a son-in-law and granddaughter.

"There's a book in yellow with a pink border. I like to read uplifting stories, romantic novels and nonfiction. I don't like to read cut-and-bury murder mysteries, or even Harry Potter. I'm not against Harry Potter, but those books just aren't for me.

"There's the word 'LIE' in black, which symbolizes dreary, depressing, melancholy. I can't stand it when you tell a lie. There's a big red 'X' over it, which tells you I feel strongly about not liking lies.

"There's a bouquet of flowers, yellow and purple, with a green base that symbolizes rebirth. I love flowers, love to arrange them. They are God's way of renewing the earth every day."

Murchison then went around to each desk, checking the index card and the student's symbols, saying a few encouraging words to each of them.

"I spend the first few days of the school year getting to know my students," she said, later. "The more unique they are, the more it comes out in the faces. I see real strong feelings, attitudes, emotions and beliefs."

Murchison said she's been using the facial motif for about five years, normally as a teaching tool for students to describe what they think a character in a novel or short story should look like. Last year, she decided to use the face drawing as a way to get to know students.

"I know I have to be gentle with some of them, because I've seen a lot of anger in some of these faces today," she said Thursday.

One face in particular grabbed her attention.

"This student told me he was going to be sad because his father was going to Iraq in September," she said. The face had a U.S. flag motif overlaying it with dog tags at the neck, white stars in a blue field at top of head and forehead, and red and white stripes running diagonally across the face.

THEN AND NOW

With her more than three decades in the classroom as a backdrop, Murchison offered these observations on school, students and parents:

• Hair: "Styles aren't that much different between the 1970s and now. The fashion pendulum swings back and forth so frequently these days."

• Fashion: "I see more individual styles today. When I began teaching, the girls could just wear skirts no higher than the knees. Student dress was more tailored, more dress-up. Today we are more lax, more casual, but we're in control because of dress codes."

• Attitudes: "They all still want to learn, but I have to find the way they can learn. If they're angry or have a bad attitude, I try to find the cause of it and go on from there."

• Behavior: "Again, not that much different from 30 years ago. Talking is still the worst problem I come across."

• Intelligence: "Today's students aren't as academically prepared as they were 30 years ago. I have to see where they are academically and try to reach them."

• Maturity: "Students then seemed to be more mature at their age because their parents expected it of them. Today, since many of them come from single-parent households, they find themselves in circumstance beyond their control. Parental structure is lacking sometimes, but that's because many parents are out working when the children are out of school."

• Size: "Classes are a lot smaller, and this is a blessing for me."

• Awareness of world: "Students used to be more well-read, and I fault TV for a lot of this. Television has targeted teens with specific programming, and this has taken the place of reading. The results are shorter attention spans and lessened ability to concentrate."

• Parental Involvement: "It has deteriorated. It has gone from about 50 percent when I began teaching to about 10 percent now. There are more efforts these days to involve the parents, and it's a challenge. Many want, but don't know how, to be involved with their child's education."

• Teaching methods: "In the past, you handed out textbooks and the syllabus and then started teaching. Some students got it, others got left behind. Now, we try to make sure no one gets left behind. Instead of a big test at the end of a unit, we do smaller tests to gauge how much the student is learning. Education these days is very data-oriented."

'IT'S NO JOB'

Murchison said she knew early on she would wind up in the classroom.

"I was first aware of my calling to be a teacher in the first grade in Alabama," she said. "Mrs. Thomas challenged me to do better and I had such respect for her, wanted to be her."

Another spark was provided by her 11th-grade English teacher at Northside, Mary Mantiply.

"She inspired me to write, read and learn to teach English," Murchison said. "I always knew I'd come back here to teach, and I have a great love for Northside. About 25 of our teachers here now are Northside graduates."

Murchison herself graduated from Northside in 1970 as valedictorian. This year, she was named Northside's Teacher of the Year.

She sees the role of the teacher in the future as vastly different from the one when she began her education career.

"In the future, teachers will be more facilitators in the learning process than givers of knowledge," she said. "My role as a lone lecturer and giver of knowledge is certainly over, but I feel teachers will never be replaced. We teachers, in schools and elsewhere, train all other professions how to do their jobs."

Teaching is a lifetime commitment, she said, and there really is no summer vacation. During the summer months there are professional learning classes, visits to one's classroom and common planning for the coming year with other teachers.

"It's no job, and that's why I'm still here," she said. "I'll stay here until I feel I need to go or I see it's time for a younger person to come in. It's just exciting, it's my passion. I love the classroom."

By Jake Jacobs, The Telegraph