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by Hope Shelley
Not only does she know your grades, she knows gymnastics, swimming, astronomy, and the importance of hard work.
Florence Mitchell has been a teacher since 1959. She has a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, and she has also done a lot of studying. Currently she is a tracker for the sophomores of NS.
“[For] the students who are failing, I try to be an advocate for them and say, ‘Do you need help talking to the teacher, turning in papers? Do you know your electronics, how to get on your iPads?’” said Mitchell, a part-time tracker at NS. “I try to help them with all kinds of things they need help with and encouragement is the main thing. I also email and call parents.”
It seems as though Mitchell never stops. Even at 80 years old, she still is working and enjoying her job. She claims she is just a workaholic and it’s just what she has always known to do.
“You get up and you just do,” Mitchell said. “I think it keeps me more healthy, it helps me have a goal. Daily goals and weekly goals. I feel good, and I’ve always worked.”
Although she sees value in working hard, she has some regrets from her past.
“The only bad thing is that I get too attached and spend more time at the school some of the years than I should have and neglected my family,” Mitchell said. “It always made me feel bad that I was always working.”
Mitchell isn’t sure when she is going to retire; she loves working and doesn’t feel like she needs to stop yet.
“I keep saying another couple years, but I’ve been saying that for the last 10 or so,” Mitchell said. “I just feel as long as I can be of service to the school district, if I’m serving a purpose for being here, then I want to keep trying to come.”
She has always loved her job because of the learning. She has gotten to teach so many things, and her favorite part has always been the students.
One of her least favorite parts about her job is when kids don’t do their work and waste their time.
“I try to encourage them and it makes me sad, really sad because they do not realize that they will never get that time back,” Mitchell said.
She has also made a lot of new friends with her wonderful personality.
“Her office unofficially is in the library, so we talk all the time,” said Robyn Hansen, a library worker at NS. “She is part of our library family.”
Mitchell has lived in Sanpete for 41 years and started part-time teaching at NS January of 1980.
A few of the staff members at NS she has actually taught either at swimming lessons or in school. Some of these people are Jon and Heather Hafen, Landon Bailey, Tyler Bailey, Rickie Stewart, Matt Roberts, and Ryan Syme. One of her most well known students is Governor Spencer Cox.
Not only has she been a tracker, she has taught an array of things like social studies, astronomy, physical education, gymnastics, and swimming.
She has been teaching swimming lessons for 58 years, and she feels like it’s one of her biggest impacts in the community.
“I’ve had two pools, one in Lehi and one in Chester,” Mitchell said. “I’ve taught my one daughter Vickie how to teach, so since I went on my mission in 2003, she’s helped me with the pool—she taught while I was gone to Australia.”
One thing that has had a huge impact on her life is teaching gymnastics to girls in Lehi. She competed with them and won state.
“In 1965, we had a full gymnastics team, but it was when girls gymnastics was just beginning in Utah,” Mitchell said. “I enjoyed my kids thoroughly and did lots of activities with them.”
Another huge impact Mitchell has made in education is teaching astronomy to 5th and 6th graders. She has been to Orlando, Florida, and seen the real space shuttles and to Johnson Space Center where they train all the animals that go into space along with seeing famous astronauts.
“One of my favorite things to do was star parties at my house at night for the families of my students or anybody else who wanted to come with the telescopes,” Mitchell said.
She loves talking and sharing things about astronomy with others and is very educated on the topic.
“Her and I have a common interest and it’s space,” Hansen said. “My brother came over and did a presentation at Moroni elementary when we were there, so everytime she gets a necklace from NASA or anything like that, she shows me.”
She also worked in Pleasant Creek for youth and custody.
Whenever she’s not working at the school, she is working at her farm. She loved to take care of her horses. Now it’s just a hay farm, though.
“My husband and I bought a farm in Chester 40 years ago and we raised register quarter horses,” Mitchell said. “When his health began to fail, me and my kids, particularly my daughter Katie, pretty much took over the farm because I was still working full time at the school.”
The Mitchells were also a host family to 34 different Japanese kids over a seven year period. They would come mostly in the summer. Their main objective was to learn better English.
She loves to help others and you can see her service all throughout the community.
“She’s very supportive with whatever we do,” said Britnie Lucas, Mitchell’s granddaughter. “She’s always asking if she can help with anything that we are doing.”
Mitchell believes that her purpose is her family. She has four children, one boy and three girls. Her last two children were a set of twin girls. She has ten grandkids and five great-grandkids.
She loves to spend time with her grandkids. She has some great memories with them.
“The three oldest granddaughters used to come down when they were little and sleep on the floor in their sleeping bags and watch movies and we would have popcorn,” Mitchell said.
She is a great example to her grandkids and they’ve learned a lot from her past.
“[She’s] shown me that you don’t have to commit to every single thing you do, but you can try a lot of different things till you find your niche,” said Casey Mitchell, Mitchell’s grandson.
She likes to quilt, sew, ride horses, read, and watch movies.
Growing up, she loved horses. All of her spare time as she was growing up from being six years old and on she was a horse. As she grew up she would race them too.
She served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints in Australia, and it was one of the highlights of her life. She has also been a temple worker at the Manti Temple for the past 7 years.
