District Staff: Elementary: Diane Jacobson

Diane Weaver Jacobson Interview

By Deb Vorderstrasse

October 12, 2007

When Diane Weaver Jacobson first moved to Hebron to work at Thayer Central in 1980, she caught the eye of another young teacher by the name of Vic Jacobson. “The rest is history!” she grins. They were married on June 7, 1981, and both are still teaching at TCCS.

Mrs. Jacobson was born in Leroy, raised in Bushton and Blue Rapids, Kansas, and moved to Neligh, Nebraska, as a seventh grader where she graduated from high school. She grew up in a home where education was highly valued. With her father being a superintendent and her mother a teacher, she said, “It was never if you were going to go school, it was where you were going to go to school.”

She earned her BA degree at the University of Nebraska and her Masters at Doane College. At her college graduation, her former kindergarten teacher reminded her of a certain little five-year-old student named Diane who had already decided to be a teacher and a mommy. Diane Jacobson has become both. They have a daughter in grad school and a son majoring in music education, both at the University of Nebraska.

For 28 years Mrs. Jacobson has taught at Thayer Central Elementary School. She remembers her first year as the 5^th-6^th grade teacher. Some of her students decided to play a joke on the new teacher so they brought a snake into the classroom. Rather than screaming as they had hoped, she reached out and took the snake. So much for scaring the new teacher.

She has also taught 2^nd grade for five years, 3^rd grade for nineteen, and kindergarten for two. This is her first year teaching 1^st grade.

Because Mrs. Jacobson knows that teachers often see the students more than their parents do, she wants to keep a positive atmosphere in the classroom. Sometimes a student will have special needs, and she helps them feel accepted and important. One such student later came back to help in the classroom sorting Weekly Readers and doing odd jobs so the teacher can focus on her main work.

Mrs. Jacobson appreciates the great school system at TCCS and admits, “I’ve never grown tired of teaching.” And with her commitment and abilities, she probably never will.