How to do your laundry. How to groom yourself. How to prepare for the workforce.

That’s what Ronda Lecompte started her career teaching 38 years ago. 

For James Rowe, it was all about hands-on building, creating and manufacturing. He was an industrial arts teacher when he started 35 years ago.

The two lifelong teachers, both at Auburn Middle School, are retiring at the end of the school year, and recently reflected on teaching and how public education has changed. 

Lecompte is still a home economics teacher, but her lessons over the years have adapted to the times. 

From teaching home basics to filling out job applications and resumes, she now teaches all things health: how to do CPR, basic first-aid, how to use an automated external defibrillator and how to cook and maintain a healthy lifestyle, while to her pleasure, maintaining some sewing, which she believes is an important skill to have.

“It teaches them a new tool and problem solving. When they are done and look up, most of the time, they say ‘I feel accomplished.’ That’s a hard feeling to get after an essay, or a math problem, but they really feel accomplished after a (sewing) project,” said Lecompte.

Similarly, Rowe recalls in the ’90s his classes being geared toward teaching students how to work with basic materials in building foot stools, birdhouses, and some basic welding on signs. 

Over the years, it morphed to combine STEM — science, technology, engineering and math – with a focus on creating projects that solve problems. He’ll present a problem, give criteria and constraints, and students are tasked with building a solution. 

The teachers would agree that students, like their lessons, have changed over the years. 

With the iPad and laptop generation, as Rowe calls it, teachers have to be more entertaining than ever as they are trying to compete with the screens. Students have a harder time focusing for longer periods of time and they need some repetition to retain the information. 

It feels more difficult to teach, Lecompte said.

“I think it would be crazy to say students haven’t changed over the years,” she said. “For me, I still see the excitement in learning, but I don’t necessarily see the follow through. It makes me a little sad. I would love to see students be a little more self directed in taking learning in their own hands.”

Both teachers agree they will miss teaching, regardless of the hurdles and changes.

For Rowe, he coached the middle school’s robotics team for 19 years, always earning a spot in the state tournaments or championships. He coached the Maine Junior Solar Sprint, building solar powered race cars. He taught Odyssey of the Mind, a hands-on creative solving competition, bringing teams across the country to compete.

His Odyssey of the Mind team this year traveled to Iowa. Though the students were upset with their place in the competition, he was just proud of them. It’s something he’ll miss the most. 

“I told them, ‘You should be happy you took a chance and tried to solve something. You did the best you could. It didn’t work out, but you learn from it,’” he said.

He urges future teachers to find something they are passionate about and give it all they’ve got.

“It all comes down to the passion,” he said. 

Lecompte agrees. The teaching profession has served her well, she said, and made her feel proud. 

She’ll take with her the little moments, like when she receives an email from a former student who made a recipe she taught in class, or when she hears someone brought the pillow they made in high school with them to college. Her favorite is when a former student’s face lights up when they see her. 

“That’s when I know I made a difference of some sort,” she said. “If any future teacher can have that same feeling, it would be amazing.”