By Mary Gales Askren, Madison Daily Leader
You say, ‘Goodbye’ and I say, ‘Hello, hello, hello.’
The lyrics of the Beatles song blared across the public address system at 10:30 a.m. last Wednesday in the Rutland School. Retiring teachers Barb Meyer and Dale Moeller faked ducking out an outside door before entering the hall where students and staff had gathered to honor them with clapping, cheering, high fives and hugs.
Later, students dropped off laptops in Moeller’s classroom as the school year drew to a close. He was ending his 37-year teaching career as the district’s technology teacher and IT guru.
Moeller smiled, remembering the first computers he used when technology was introduced in the schools decades ago. He was a vocational ag teacher.
“Fortunately, being an ag person, we had computers before other classes,” he said. “There were Perkins funds for technology.”
Moeller was referring to funding through the Vocational Education Act of 1984 which is also called the Perkins Act. Carl D. Perkins, a member of the U.S. House from 1949 to 1984, was a teacher before becoming a congressman and remained a strong advocate for education.
“I remember using a dial-up modem,” Moeller said of the way computers initially accessed the internet.
He would place the headset of a phone into a device and the computer would dial another modem. This enabled Rutland students to participate in a learning game through the University of Nebraska.
“You had a herd of cows. You had to select bulls with certain traits to improve your herd,” Moeller said, describing the activity. He would then get a printout of his students’ results.
He migrated into teaching technology out of necessity, just as he had stepped into teaching of necessity – the district’s, not his. Moeller was working at an implement dealership, having taken a break from teaching after being in the classroom for six years.
“My sister-in-law was working here and called me to see if I wanted to teach here,” he recalled. The district, which was sharing an ag teacher with Oldham-Ramona, had a vacancy.
He accepted the position and taught in both districts, commuting from a rural Garretson residence daily, for five years.
After his position became full-time at Rutland, he picked up a computer class. By the end of the 1998 school year, he realized he couldn’t continue splitting his efforts between the two areas.
“I asked the superintendent to either give me ag or give me computers,” Moeller said. “He said, ‘OK,’ you can do computers.”
With that change, he helped to shepherd the district through multiple technology incarnations. When he started, the district had two labs – a Mac lab for Apple computers and a PC lab for those which used a different operating system. When he left, every student in the school had a tablet to use.
“We were one of the first ones to have laptops for seniors,” Moeller recalled. “We actually had laptops before the state got on board.”
Eventually, all high school students had them and then both middle school and high school students had them. Finally, even elementary students had them.
“One of the things I was concerned about was getting laptops in all of the students’ hands,” Moeller said.
Now students learn keyboarding and word processing while they are in elementary school.
“When they get to middle school, they’re ready to go,” Moeller said, explaining that it’s actually easier for the younger students to learn those skills than for older students.
The notes he has received after students graduate and go on to a tech school or university have been rewarding to him. There, his former students come to appreciate what he worked to teach.
“I didn’t like doing it when I was in school, but it sure helped me later,” Moeller said, paraphrasing the message found in these messages.
He knows that he has driven over half a million miles while teaching at Rutland, and he won’t miss getting out of bed early to make that commute. However, he knows there are aspects of his job he will miss.
“I’m sure I’m going to miss a little bit of everything, some of the kids, some of the staff,” he commented.
The tradeoff will be that he will be able to enjoy more time with his family and have time for other activities he enjoys, such as camping.
