Terrific Teacher Tribute: Karen Glasenapp Riverside Elementary School

CLEVELAND - For the past 35 years, Karen Glasenapp has worked to turn school work into songs at Riverside Elementary School on Cleveland's west side.

She says when she first started teaching kindergarten in the 1970s, teachers were required to know how to play the piano.

That's because studies show that you use a different part of the brain to remember lyrics set to music, opposed to words in a poem without music.

It is for this reason that music is a big part of all Mrs. Glasenapp's lessons.

Glasnapp's method appears to be working. Year after year her entire class meets their end-of-year reading goals. Additionally, in 2002, Glasenapp was named teacher of the year by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

"I love to come to school everyday," Glasenapp said.

"That's why I'm so sad about retiring because it is just wonderful. It really makes everything so nice when you're in an environment that's so nurturing and that's how I try to make my classroom, a nurturing and happy place," she said.