Students from preschool through eighth grade took part in a parade around the St. John Brebeuf School and church grounds June 3 to honor a longtime teacher who’s retiring this year.

Kathy Nichols started in 1981 as the school’s first preschool teacher and has been doing it ever since—for 29 years.

“Retiring is bittersweet for me. I love this place,” Nichols said. “I’m living my dream.”

She has also worked hard at making that dream a reality, said Margaret Whitman, the school’s principal. Nichols designed the curriculum, did all the planning and set up the classroom with equipment and materials needed for the preschool program, she said. The curriculum focuses on teaching children skills and lessons appropriate for their developmental stage, and includes art, play, drama, physical activity, hands-on experience, prayers, social interaction, pre-reading skills and literature.

Many of the lessons are reinforced by real-world activities. For example, Whitman said, when Nichols teaches her preschool charges to write their names, and they know their addresses, they walk as a class to the mailbox to send off letters to their parents.

To keep her instruction updated, Nichols has taken classes and attended workshops to learn more about child development and preschool education, Whitman said. That has included singing lessons, technology education and a workshop last summer on appropriate websites to use with three- and four-year-old children. She also learned to use the interactive SmartBoard in the classroom.

Nichols, who taught fifth grade at St. Pascal before she got married in 1970 and had children, said she finds the preschooler age fascinating.

“They’re so honest, curious and, of course, loving and enthusiastic,” she said.

Nichols’ own son and daughter, who are now adults, attended St. John Brebeuf, and helped Nichols when she ran a summer camp at the school.

Nichols is working hard at organizing the classroom and her materials so that her successor will be able to find her way around.

“I feel sad I’m leaving because I love this place. It’s so wonderful to work for. They support your creativity, and are dedicated to creating an environment where you have everything you need for what you want to do,” she said.

She still plans to volunteer at the school and be active in the community, but decided to retire this year because her husband, Bud Nichols, who is 12 years older, has been asking her to retire for the past three years so they can spend more time together, she said.

“He’s been so sweet about it,” she added.

Bud Nichols said he’s looking forward to traveling, since they were limited to only summertime vacations before, and enjoying theater and museums around the Chicago area.

Kathy Nichols said she’ll have to adjust to retirement, and the school will have to adjust to her absence.

“Mrs. Nichols is a talented and giving teacher who will be greatly missed at St. John Brebeuf,” said Whitman, “and long remembered by the children whom she has taught.”