Book shares stories of teacher who loves what she does

St. Mark the Evangelist School teacher Evelyn Karozos is pictured with a copy of her book, There’s a Spider in Your Hair (and other classroom vignettes). (Submitted photo)

By John Shaughnessy

It’s one of her favorite stories from her 22 years of teaching, a story that also led to the unusual title of her self-published book.

As she monitored a classroom of students taking a test, Evelyn Karozos was approached by a boy who finished the exam early.

“I have two things,” the boy said to her in his typically low-key tone. “First, where do we put our test?”

After Karozos told him to put the test on the front desk, the boy continued ever so calmly, “And the other thing, there’s a spider in your hair.”

“I screamed and told him to get it out of my hair,” Karozos recalls. “And he batted my hair to get rid of it.”

There’s a Spider in Your Hair (and other classroom vignettes) is Karozos’ effort to share her experiences with students from her 22 years of teaching at St. Mark the Evangelist School in Indianapolis.

There’s the memory of “the soccer game that one particularly troubled boy invited two of us teachers to watch. After the game, he performed a few cartwheels off the field as his way of thanking us for coming.”

There’s the story of the unexpected act by an eighth-grade boy who was known for bullying.

“He publicly acknowledged his faults to his peers and to the upcoming class of seventh graders, and advised them to not be like him and to treat their fellow classmates better than he did,” she writes. “On the contrary, I hope they all have the courage to be like him—to face their flaws and ask forgiveness of those they’ve wronged.”

There’s also the tale of her own memorable mistake, one she made as a first-year teacher that she was convinced would end her teaching career. Exhausted and overwhelmed one day, she “snapped” as she listened as some students blamed the other for something that happened. She blurted, “If you don’t stop lying, you’re going to go to . . .”

“Mouths gaped as deep as the Grand Canyon,” she writes. “I got up from my chair and marched myself straight to the principal’s office to confess my sin. I needed to tell her that her phone might be ringing about three seconds after dismissal. And I needed to prepare myself for my own permanent dismissal. Unflappable Mrs. C—she smiled, shook her head, and said that if this were the worst thing I ever did that I would be one lucky teacher.”

In all, she shares more than 70 stories, most just a page in length. One story she doesn’t share in her book is what led her to become a teacher.

“For 13 years, I lived in Chicago, and I worked for a bank,” she recalls in an interview. “Then I came back to Indianapolis and wanted to do something different.

“I have a nephew who has cerebral palsy. He was born in 1988. When it was time to change my life path, I thought special education would let me help others and help him. I went back to school for two years to get my teaching degree. That’s how it started—with his special needs. He lives here in Indianapolis. He just celebrated his 27th birthday. He’s one of the happiest guys I know.”

Karozos has found happiness, too, as a special education teacher and a Spanish instructor at St. Mark School. Her joy shows when she writes about her “most poignant gift” from a student: “Actually, I have long since forgotten the gift, but the card read, ‘Thank you—you were there when I needed you most.’ ”

Her love of being a teacher also shines through in a list of her “favorite moments”:

“Tying neckties in the narthex just before graduation Mass begins.”

“Supervising an after-school detention and then spending the time having a meaningful conversation instead of making the student do the writing assignment.”

“Answering a phone call at home from a former student who just wanted to say hi.”

“Being introduced to your former student’s fiancée who tells you she’s heard so much about you [and in a good way!]”

“Holding the newborn baby of that student you hoped would make a good mother. Or father.”

Karozos says her 106-page book is just her way “to share her experiences and help me remember.”

“I started writing things down about eight years ago. I started collecting little scraps of paper about this incident and that incident, this student and that student. I shared the stories with family, and I got a lot of encouragement. So I kept writing. My experiences aren’t unique. I’m not telling stories that haven’t happened in other classrooms.”

She is just sharing the stories of a teacher who loves what she does, who loves the students she teaches.

“I learn more from them than they will ever learn from me,” she says. “It has opened my eyes to children of so many different backgrounds and parents from so many walks of life. It’s humbling.”
 

(Available for $18, There’s a Spider in Your Hair (and other classroom vignettes) can be ordered through the website, www.spiderinyourhair.com.) †