Rentrop wins middle school teacher honor

Twenty-year teaching veteran Laura Rentrop shies away from credit for being named St. Mary Parish Middle School Teacher of the Year.

“I don’t look at myself in those terms,” Rentrop said. “I always feel like, as a teacher, it’s such a group effort.

“It’s not that the Teacher of the Year is all about you. It takes so much to make it all work, that I guess if you’re doing your job, everybody is a Teacher of the Year. There’s no way you can do it all by yourself.”

And by group effort, she means teachers, administrators, students and families. There is so much involved in it, Rentrop said.

Rentrop has taught seventh-grade English at Berwick Junior High for 10 years.

Before that, she went on a hiatus for nine years to raise her three daughters, Sarah, Grace and Claire, until the last of them entered kindergarten.

Rentrop began her career teaching fifth-graders at Berwick Elementary.

It’s no surprise her view of this level of success is group effort. She was born and raised in Berwick.

“I’m a product of the Berwick schools’ system,” Rentrop said.

The stability of living in one place all your life allows her to know everyone and everyone to know her.

She carries a sense of community pride when entering the classroom “definitely, because it’s home.

“These kids are a part of my world,” Rentrop said. “It’s just a sense of family. It’s home. These students I’ve known since they were babies because they are a part of my hometown.

“And I’ve been able to see them grow even when they leave me to go off to high school, college or out into the world. It’s family.”

Berwick Junior High Principal Timmy Hymel and St. Mary Parish Social Studies Instructional Program Manager Amber Monceaux agree.

“Ms. Rentrop not only gives the tools and confidence students need for success, but also concentrates on the whole child and fosters relationships with each and every student,” Hymel said.

“She is an asset to BJHS and the community of Berwick.”

“St. Mary Parish Middle School Teacher of the Year is such a well-deserved title for Ms. Rentrop,” Monceaux said.

“Her dedication to excellence has and continues to positively influence her students, colleagues and community.”

Rentrop serves as the school’s head sponsor of the BETA Club. The club is an academic and service organization.

They provide things like canned goods and transit kits to St. Mary Outreach, cards for veterans, and presents for Patterson nursing home residents.

During the summer, if students place at the state level and want to go to the national convention, she will take them. They’ve traveled to places like Louisville, Mobile and, twice, to Nashville.

With approximately 145 students in BETA, only a handful actually attend the convention.

“It’s a family trip,” Rentrop said. “So, we get a lot of down time just to go to convention and compete. We also get to go sightseeing.

“I want them to see something in the area that we’re in. So, while in Nashville, students visited the Ryman, Country Music Hall of Fame, and the recording studio where Elvis recorded a lot,” RCA Studio B.

She is not interested in taking students to waterparks and malls when they travel away from home. She wants them to experience fun with an educational twist.

“I want my kids to see what the town is about,” Rentrop said. “So we’re going to sightsee and do that kind of thing. We’re going to learn something. It’s just going to be fun.”

“Laura is passionate about the work our club does for our community,” said Berwick Junior High English teacher Mary Michelle Reggie. “She is an admirable example and role model for our students to follow. I am so happy that we are co-workers.”

Reggie continued, “I am thrilled that Laura Rentrop is St. Mary Parish’s Teacher of the Year,” she said. “Laura is a leader, a problem-solver, and a dynamic member of our seventh-grade team.

“Her compassion, organization, and teaching abilities are superior.”

These days, the hardest thing about being a teacher for Rentrop is using technology. But she does not let that hinder her effectiveness as a teacher.

“It’s just different and it’s the constant change,” Rentrop said.

“And every year it’s something different within the education system that we’re using or a different way of doing this or not going to do this anymore, we’re going to do this.”

She has no qualms asking her students, born in the technological age, for assistance.

“It’s hard for me but they teach me so much,” Rentrop said. “Because I’ll say ‘OK guys, I can’t do this. Somebody tell me how to get this done.’ And most of the time, I can get one of them to show me how.

“They know what to do. I’ll be glad to have them help me. Kids today know so much with computers. I didn’t grow up with that. They have. And they can help me. And I’m glad for them to help me.”

Relationship building with students comes easiest for her as a teacher.

“I feel like I do relate well to the students,” Rentrop said. “I feel like we do get along. There’s a respect, a mutual respect.

“I think I create a mutual respect, which is one of the most important things, because without it I can’t get from them and they won’t take from me.”

The most rewarding part of her job and what makes it all worthwhile is “the kids, my students.”

“When they feel good about what they’ve done, that’s what it’s all about,” Rentrop said.

Always wanting to be a teacher, Rentrop’s greatest influence and favorite teacher is her mother, Linda Forgey, who passed away over 20 years ago. She was Rentrop’s fourth-grade reading teacher.

“And I’ve been blessed to teach two of my children,” Rentrop said.

Successful in her own right, strong values, faith and a belief in the power of education kept this teacher afloat coping through a divorce and raising her daughters.

“Strong values were instilled in me from the time I was very young,” Rentrop said. “My faith is No. 1. I strongly believe in education. And my girls all know you have to do this. Your grades are the most important.

“It’s just expectations. I didn’t let the expectations lower because of my situation. They have to be productive citizens, my children and my students.”

Regardless of what may be going on in one’s personal life, it’s important not to drop the ball. Stay focused on the goal.

“You can’t lower your expectations,” Rentrop said. “You have to keep a level. And that’s with all kids. If you lower your expectations you’re going to get lower. They’re going to give you lower. You can’t lower them.

As for thinking is she a role model for her daughters, “I hope so,” Rentrop said. “I hope so.”

Rentrop’s oldest daughter Sarah is a junior at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. And daughters Grace, 12th-grader and Claire, ninth-grader, are students at Berwick High.