Students and teachers at Glenbard East High School cite various reasons why Carol Woods was such a beloved foreign language substitute teacher.
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She enthusiastically shared stories of her travels to Guatemala, Spain and Mexico, where she lived among locals. She loved Spanish music, conducting makeshift classroom choirs in spirited renditions of Beatles songs translated into Spanish.
“Todos vivimos en un submarino amarillo,” she sang with a smile, recalling the Spanish lyrics to her favorite Beatles tune, “Yellow Submarine.”
But what Woods thinks her students like most about her is that she allowed them to listen to music on their iPods while they filled out their foreign language exercise sheets. The idea of students listening to pop music in class baffled her at first, but she came around.
“I play Spanish songs on my own iPod to compete with them,” she said. “And then I’d ask, ‘Do you know this song? Do you understand what it means?'”
Woods, 89, announced earlier this year that she would retire from substitute teaching after spending 29 years at Glenbard High School District 87. Her energy rarely faltered, even when she began requiring a walker get around. And rather than criticize her old age, students embraced her wisdom and experience.
“A student once asked me, ‘How old are you?’ and I said, ‘Old enough to be your grandma,'” she said. “I wasn’t gonna tell him how old I really was.”
“It was a little shocking (District 87) let me keep on coming,” she added.
In truth, language teachers were relieved to know their students were in good hands during their absence.
“You never had to worry about going on vacation, because the students wouldn’t miss a step,” said Linnette Dorman, chair of the world languages department at Glenbard East High School.
Dorman said Woods went beyond the worksheets teachers left her. Besides teaching lessons, she’d grade tests and quizzes.
Woods began teaching full-time at Geneva Unit District 304 in the 1970s, shortly after raising her family and earning a degree from Roosevelt University. During her summer breaks, she’d travel to Spanish-speaking countries and bring back plenty of stories to share with her students.
“I loved those 29 years,” she said. “They were all good kids.”
@marwaeltagouri