LEWISTON – Teacher Ernie Gagne has a lot in common with many parents. He can’t wait for school to open. For many, that will be Wednesday.

Gagne jokes he’s played enough golf “and it isn’t getting any better.”

He’s ready for school. He misses the students.

“My family says I’m like a little kid,” said the 49-year-old.

Gagne is beginning his second year as a second-career teacher of fifth-graders at Pettingill Elementary School, “and I am smarter than a fifth-grader,” he said, referring to the popular TV show. As a new teacher who is older, he brings life experience to the classroom that younger teachers don’t have, he said.

Gagne is well known in the area. His is the voice of the Lewiston Maineiacs hockey team, announcing French Canadian players’ names with the right roll of the tongue.

And he’s the former WBLM radio station character “Frenchie,” who 15 years ago both amused and outraged. After about seven years on the station, the character was taken off the air in 1993 after protests that he was offensive.

Gagne still shakes his head about protests over how he mimicked Franco-American immigrants. “Certainly it was self-depreciating. The French had a certain stereotype, but I’m French,” he said. “To me, what I did was no different than what Richard Pryor did with African Americans.”

His path from sales – his first career – to teaching resulted from what he calls his naive assumptions.

Gagne grew up in Auburn and graduated from Edward Little in 1977.

“When my buddies all went to college, my dream was to be a professional baseball umpire.” He went to umpire school in Florida. He didn’t become one, in part because “there are so few and they stay for 30 years.”

He got a job at an office products store. At age 23 he was the manager. He did other sales work until his early 40s. “I finally realized I was tired of selling things,” Gagne said. “But it was all I could do. I had no college background.”

He remembers telling his wife, Patti, “I think I’d like to teach. How hard can it be?” Teachers are home at 3 o’clock, enjoy plenty of days off.

Plus, he figured that on school vacations and snow days, he’d be home with their two children.

With his wife’s blessing. Gagne enrolled at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College. He started a program for future teachers that included time in real classrooms. “We started with 15 of us in the program. Only three graduated.” It was tougher than expected, Gagne said. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 2006.

Now, he realizes teachers “make it look easy.” He’s had to do a lot of research and class preparation. He typically works from 7 a.m. until 4:30 or 5 p.m.

With a class of 24, each student learns differently, keeping him on his toes. Lots of kids don’t have ideal home lives, which can present more challenges. And there are the higher expectations of learning outcomes.

Teachers have to keep up with technology. If Gagne teaches about Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Len searching for the Fountain of Youth in 1513 without technology, he gets blank stares. “They want to do more than read about it. They want video. They want electronics. They want excitement.”

Gagne tries to make learning more fun and interesting. “But it isn’t always easy.”

“Teaching is the toughest job I’ve ever had or will ever have,” Gagne said. But it is fulfilling. “I truly love every minute of coming here.”