After 30 years of teaching in Carbon County, Pam Kraft is stepping down from her position as art teacher for the Encampment K-12 School.
Kraft has become quite the fixture at the school, teaching students from first grade through 12th grade for three decades. A Detroit, Mich. native, Kraft first taught art for a year-and-a-half in Gross Pointe, Mich., but said she began teaching in Encampment in 1977.
At that point in time, she only taught for one year in Encampment before moving to Phoenix, Ariz., with her husband, Dan, an Encampment native whom she married in 1978. After the couple moved back to Encampment, Kraft worked her way back into the district as a substitute teacher before becoming fulltime again.
“I substitute taught for awhile, but I didn’t really get back into teaching until after my first child was born,” she said. “I’ve had 30 years of teaching in the district, even though I started here 35 years ago. I have siblings who work or retired from what people would consider ideal jobs, and everyone would be the first to tell you I’ve been the one that’s been the most fulfilled throughout my career with my job.”
Kraft said she ended up living and teaching in Wyoming after coming out to Pinedale for the summer with her college roommate from Michigan State. Surrounded by natural beauty, Kraft said she fell in love with Wyoming and hoped to land a teaching job somewhere in the state.
“I would’ve loved to have gotten a teaching job in Pinedale, but like all small towns, they only had one art teacher and if the teacher teaches for 30 or 35 years, you’re not going to get a job,” she said. “However, the superintendent took a liking to me and saw an opening down here in Encampment. He said ‘I know of this small town down in the other part of the state that is looking for an art teacher, and I think you would really like it and should go apply.’ Here I loved the small-town life, the mountains and the ‘cowboy sort of thing.’ ”
Now that she is retired, Kraft said she will miss seeing and interacting with students each day in what she called a great learning environment.
“I’ve taught the little bitty ones up to the high school graduates, and you grow to be really attached to a lot of them because you’ve had them in class for 12 years,” she said. “Being in a small community you get to see them grow up, and around here everyone keeps an eye on everyone else’s kids. I’ll also miss the teachers, who have been good friends, and it’s so easy to just keep in touch with them when you see them everyday. I’ll miss that camaraderie and closeness with them, and I don’t know what it will be like when I don’t have that.”
Being a teacher in small town, Kraft also appreciated that the young kids and older kids could mingle together in the same small-school environment.
“We have our little ones in the same building as our high school kids, so it’s nice for them to be around positive role models like that,” she said. “The younger kids can choose role models who are really healthy for them, but in the big cities the kids may not have many positive role models and look up to people who aren’t necessarily the best to look up to. I think that’s part of the reason why the kids around here seem more innocent and not as jaded as city kids.”
Kraft joked that her students were the ones who helped keep her feeling young and updated with today’s popular culture.
“The kids are always uplifting and keep me young,” she said. “They’re the reason I know about today’s pop music, Facebook and Twitter.”
With her time as the only art teacher in the school, Kraft was able to expand her horizons by teaching drawing, painting, ceramics, jewelry making, photography and computer graphics. She also has worked with digital photography and computer programs like Photoshop.
She said her students’ enjoyment during art class is another thing she will miss about teaching.
“Art is usually the class where the kids want to be there, and for the most part they come in there, enjoy it and look forward to it,” Kraft said. “Some people say that I’m going to love retirement and never look back, but I never really felt that way. I felt very conflicted, and the last week or two of school was really difficult. Being the art teacher became part of my personal identity.”
As a new retiree, Kraft said she is looking forward to gardening, fishing, camping, hiking and other nature-related activities that can be done in the Platte Valley. She also expressed interest in creating more of her own works of art.
“I’m an artist as well, and teaching so much makes it difficult to produce your own work,” Kraft said. “I’m going to look forward to devoting that same creative energy to my own work, rather than just funneling it out to the kids.”
She also mentioned getting more involved with The Patti Fiasco, her daughter Alysia’s band based out of Fort Collins, Colo.
“I’m kind of like an ‘old mom’ groupie,” Kraft said. “I’d like to do a lot of road trips and go to music festivals with them, and just follow them around a bit. I’ll also look forward to planning what I’m going to do all day each day, and not be on anyone else’s schedule.”
As a fan of traveling, Kraft is also looking forward to visiting as many places as possible in her retired years.
“It would be nice to see Maine in October, when the leaves are beautiful, rather than in just the summer or during Christmas break,” she said. “I also want to go to Europe, South America and other places in the world, and travel as far as my money will take me. I love traveling, particularly to other countries.”
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