There’s a moment — a twinkle in a kid’s eye, a smile, a catching excitement — when you can see that a child has absorbed a new bit of information or learned a new skill. It’s that exact moment that made Lake Placid native Crystal (Lawrence) McComber want to become a teacher.

McComber, 42, is St. Agnes School’s Pre-K 3 teacher. As she spoke about her job on Wednesday, May 5 — right in the middle of Teacher Appreciation Week — her passion for teaching and her genuine love for her students was evident. Pushing back a lock of wavy, black hair, McComber smiled behind her mask as she talked about teaching her students how to hold a pencil, how to open their own snacks or discern between different facial expressions.

Yet, she didn’t always want to be a teacher.

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‘This is what I’m meant to do’

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McComber attended Lake Placid Elementary School and Lake Placid High School, graduating in 1996.

“One of my favorite teachers in the entire world was Ms. (Mary) Kelley. She was the third-grade teacher when I was in school. She was the best teacher. Her and my kindergarten teacher, Ms. (Alice) Woods,” she said. “They should’ve been the reason I wanted to go into education, but I never thought about that until I actually saw for myself what it was like to be in education. Now I know why they did what they did.”

McComber was 21 years old when she had her first son. In 2009, she married Jason McComber, who owns the Fitness Revolution gym in Lake Placid, and together they have four sons. It was after having her last child that McComber decided to start her own in-home daycare. When her last son turned 5 years old and started kindergarten at St. Agnes, she transitioned to cleaning houses for work.

Then, she got a call from St. Agnes School Principal Catherine Bemis.

“I was working, cleaning houses, and she said, ‘Hey, we need somebody to run our after-school program. Would you be interested?’ And I said, ‘Sure!'”

As time went on, running the after-school program turned into riding the bus as a bus monitor and being a teacher’s assistant for Bemis, who was teaching kindergarten at the time.

“I never thought about going into childhood education, especially early childhood education,” she said.

It was her experience in Bemis’ class that changed her perspective.

“Being in there, watching the kids … working with them, going over reading, blending sounds, all the things you would think, ‘Wow, you teach this to a 5-year-old? How’s that possible?’ And then it was like, once the light bulb went off, you could see it in their eyes,” she said. “I said, ‘This is my job. This is what I need to do. This is what I’m meant to do. I need to be here.'”

McComber asked Bemis how she could become a teacher. As it turned out, the school was looking for a new Pre-K 3 teacher to replace a teacher who was planning to retire. McComber took an online class to get a child development associate certification and became a teacher’s assistant for that teacher. When the teacher retired in 2015, Bemis encouraged McComber to take the job.

“I was scared. I was like, ‘(The students) were 3. What am I going to do with 3-year-olds? This is crazy.’ But it was the best decision I ever made,” she said. “The things that 3-year-olds can teach you about humans is insane. They teach me, I feel, more than I teach them.

“And to be able to guide kids as young as three into good people is absolutely amazing. I don’t know of any other job I’d love more,” she added.

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Taking on the teacher’s role

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Leading her own classroom for the first time was nerve-wracking. At first, she felt like she didn’t know what she was doing. Over the years, she’s learned that the first few weeks of school are always about adjusting to newness.

“The first week of school, when you walk into that classroom, every year it’s the same: nervous,” she said. “You’re just nervous. It’s a brand new set of kids.”

But it’s all about staying positive, getting to know your students, making them feel safe and reading the vibe of the classroom, she said.

“I really strive for them to just want to be here and feel like they have another family to go to, to feel safe,” McComber said.

Her advice for teachers just starting out: Stay positive and stick it out.

“It takes time. It takes patience. Hang in there, because it will get better. By year three, you’re going to be like, ‘What was I worried about? This is a breeze.’ Just listen to the kids. It’s all about getting them engaged,” she said. “Listen to the vibe of your room. If it’s a bad day, the kids aren’t listening, you know there’s a full moon coming, it’s a week away, just forget the lesson plan. Just forget the lesson plan and have a play day. Just have a day for the kids. Listen to the vibe of your room.”

As with every job, there are bad days.

“There are bad days where you’re just like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ But it’s just a bad day. Get through it. You’ve got your teacher family,” she said. “It’s literally a community here. We are a family, every single one of us. The teachers have got each other.”

“And the kids… you’ll have the worst morning in the world and then you just have that one child that comes up and hugs you for no reason and says, ‘Ms. Crystal, I love you.’ And it’s like, OK, we’re good,” she said.

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Teaching remotely

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The coronavirus pandemic, and the state-mandated shift to remote learning, created a whole new set of challenges for teachers. Suddenly, teachers had to find ways to connect with students virtually and make online learning engaging and meaningful.

“It was very hard in the beginning,” McComber said.

She found better results with smaller class sizes, so her class was broken up into smaller, three-person groups. She still wanted the kids to be able to connect with others in the class, who was in each group changed all the time.

“Thankfully, because of the age group that I have, it was more or less just keeping in touch socially,” she said. “Even though we couldn’t see each other, there was still a social and emotional connection, which is what is really key in early education.”

Technology wasn’t an issue, despite her students being so young.

“They do better than adults most times,” she said. “They figure it out faster than we do.”

This year, most of the school’s students are back to learning in person, though they have had to transition back to remote learning every so often. Getting all the students used to wearing masks and social distancing wasn’t easy at first.

“I know a lot of parents who have talked to me and said to me, in the beginning and even now, new parents coming into the new year, ‘How are the kids with the masks?’ The kids are doing better than the adults are,” she said. “This year has been a challenge definitely, but it’s given us some good key points moving forward in education. Smaller class sizes, better hygiene.”

Despite everything that’s happened in the past 14 months, McComber tries to keep the classroom a positive space where kids can learn something new and feel safe while doing so. As she spoke about her students, McComber beamed.

“They’re thriving this year,” she said.