MEXICO — Donna Morse is ready for new adventures.

The Mountain Valley Middle School English teacher is retiring from RSU 10 after 37 years in the classroom.

As a 1970 graduate of the former Rumford High School, Morse has devoted her entire teaching career to her home area. She’s taught fourth- fifth- and sixth-graders, and the last 15 years it’s been at Mountain Valley Middle School.

She received her bachelor of science degree in elementary education from the University of Maine at Farmington.

It has been a wonderful career, she said.

“I love to read and teach reading,” the language arts teacher said. “I know I’ll miss it, but this will open up for new teachers to bring their ideas and excitement.”

She was inspired to enter the profession by a fourth-grade lay teacher she had as a student at the former St. Athanasius Catholic School in Rumford. That teacher, she said, brought many new ideas into her classroom, including a new way to learn the multiplication tables — listening to and repeating them from LP records.

Morse also developed a love for reading in that class, something that has stayed with her.

But her favorite thing about teaching is the students.

“All kids enjoy recognition and being paid attention to and to be treated with respect,” she said.

One of her major goals has been to bring the very best literature to her students.  “Books with themes and life lessons” are favorites, she said, including “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Tuck Everlasting.”

With retirement just two months away, Morse is thinking about traveling. High on her list is a trip to Iceland.

Last year, she spent a month in the summer visiting a high school friend in Kodiak, Alaska. It was wonderful, she said, and made her want to see more.

 She knows she’ll miss the students when school resumes in the fall.

“Particularly the first couple of months. Sixth-grade is a time of transition,” she said.

She has developed many relationships with youngsters over the years, and many have come to her with problems.

“I hope I gave them good advice,” she said.

Morse, 60, became a grandmother just three weeks ago. She hopes to have more time to be with her granddaughter when she retires. She may substitute a couple days a week, read more books, and pay more attention to her flower garden.

She and her husband, Stanley, who is a self-employed, long-distance, tractor-trailer driver, are the parents of two adult children.

“I’ve been here, I’ve loved it, and I look forward to adventures,” she said.