Educator of the Week – Mr. Joel Willmon
By John Earp
This week’s featured educator in Jal Schools is Mr. Joel Willmon. Mr. Willmon came to work in Jal School last school year after having served for a total of 34 years in education, with this being his 36th year, 12 of which were teaching, 13 of which were as a principal. He served as a principal and as superintendent for nine years at Ropes Independent School District in Ropesville, Texas. He obtained his bachelor’s at Lubbock Christian University and also gained his master’s degree before going into administration.
He says Math “was always my best subject, and I use it nonstop, and I try to get the kids to see they use it nonstop; they just don’t know it.” Mr. Willmon presently teaches Math in third, fourth, fifth grade and sixth grade, in addition to two Algebra 2 classes. “I’ve got eight year olds to 18 year olds. I run the gamut of the kids they’ve got running around here. I just always liked the challenge of trying to get kids 1% smarter every day, because if I can just get them just to learn one more thing today and one more thing the next day, I got 144 shots. I can make them 144% better. We’re going to work every day. They always want to ask, when are we going to take a day off? And I say, Friday. Or how about June 23rd? Or how about July 4th? I’ll give you those days off. There you go. So, they don’t like that answer, but that same thing I give them anyway.”
Mr. Willmon’s wife lives in Lubbock. “She works at a hospital in Lubbock. So I just teach here during the week, and then I go home on the weekends. Then I’ve got a son that also lives in Lubbock, works at a hospital in Lubbock, and then I’ve got a daughter lives in Memphis, Tennessee.”
When asked, since he has retired once already, what his future plans might be, he said, “At the moment, playing it by ear, we’ll see how my health holds out, my parents’ health holds out, all that kind of stuff. So, at this point in our lives, it depends on if we end up with grandbabies. I like what I’m doing, so I keep doing it, but I don’t have any immediate plans to go anywhere else. But, if grandbabies get in the mix, all bets may be off the next day when my wife tells me, we’re moving to Tennessee.”