Ms. Anita Alcorn has known since eighth grade that she wanted to be a teacher. “I loved math and helping people,” Alcorn said.
Alcorn has been teaching for 28 years and has been working at Liberty for the past eight years. Before teaching, Alcorn went to Mizzou for college. She mentioned that she always wanted to be a teacher, but she explains that she considered going into engineering.
As an adult, Alcorn clarifies that she has had a full house. “I have five kids, one dog and three cats,” she said. “Matt, who is my oldest, he’s 26 and Justin is 25, and then Nick is 24, Abigail is 21 and then Adam is 19.”
One of her sons, actually subbed here at Liberty.
As most people know, Alcorn has gone through a very scary part in her life that no one should go through. Doctors discovered that she has an atrial septal defect, more commonly known as ASD.
“They found out that I had a hole in my heart that has been there since I was born so they went in and repaired that,” Alcorn said. “This was an infection that caused my heart to go into a-fib (atrial fibrillation) so that’s how they shocked my heart back into rhythm and that’s when they found the hole and so that’s when they decided to repair it.”
This new finding meant that Alcorn needed medical attention, resulting in a two month recovery period.
Sophomore Kailyn Bullock, one of Alcorn’s students, explains that she was very scared for Ms. Alcorn. “I was scared for her. I was concerned and worried if she was okay because we didn’t know much about what happened or how she was doing.”
Bullock also mentions that she was happy when her teacher came back in good health. “I was relieved when she came back because she was healthy and I was glad to have my teacher back.”
Alcorn thankfully explains that her recovery wasn’t bad at all though. She mentioned that it was a good recovery and it was all just about getting her stamina back. “It was nice being able to breathe again,” Alcorn expressed.
For many people, the first day of school is exciting, but for Alcorn, it was exhausting. “The first week was really tiring, I just kind of started to learn to just do what I can. What I couldn’t do, just wait to do it the next day.”
Ms. Alcorn is a very caring person who is a great teacher. Her students are so happy that her recovery was good and not too bad for her.