Ripple Effect: Mueller makes learning impactful at Burch Elem.

Andrea Mueller, Early Intervention Program teacher at Robert J. Burch Elementary, gives her students the foundational tools to launch their learning. 

As an Early Intervention Program (EIP)  teacher, she works with kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students in small instructional groups on reading and math. It is a preventative measure to keep them from falling further behind. 

“It’s like an extra dose of reading and math to help them strengthen and shore up some deficit areas and make them stronger to where they can have greater success at grade level standards,” she said.  

The goal of the EIP program is for students to improve to the point where they don’t need Mueller anymore. She helps them see that productive struggles are an important part of the process of learning. Together, they turn their can’ts into cans. 

“Just because you can’t do it yet doesn’t mean you’re never going to do it. It just means your journey to doing it is a little bit different than somebody else’s, and that’s fine.” 

Fresh out of college, she taught at Whitewater Middle for 2 years before finding her home with the Bears. She taught kindergarten for 23 years in the same classroom at Burch before moving to their EIP team. While she loved being a kindergarten teacher, she has grown to appreciate the dialed-in impact she can have in her current role. 

“I have extra heart for the kids that needed a little extra, needed a little bit more. They needed a cheerleader, a challenger, a pusher, and a celebrator when they have those moments of success and accomplishment.” 

A lifelong local resident of the county, her family has been educated here for generations. Her grandmother and father were both Fayette County High grads like her, with her dad later becoming a teacher and coach at the school. She raised her own family here, with her four children graduating from Whitewater High. 

“I think roots are important, and I think family’s important. I think it’s great if you can stay in a place and put down roots and let your children really know the generations and the history that you have here.” 

She has especially fond memories of her early years in school. Her teachers were warm and nurturing, and correction was gentle and done with love. That care she felt stuck with her, and she relishes the chance to pay it forward. 

“All of my memories of my early childhood schooling were just positive and happy and feeling capable. I wanted that same opportunity to foster that in children.” 

She hopes her students find a love of learning in her classroom that lasts them a lifetime. 

“The goal is to learn forever,” she said. “Kids are curious and you want to keep that curiosity alive forever. You want them to have a passion to learn things, a passion to know things, and that it doesn’t stop when you hit 12th grade.” 

Just like her own teachers were for her, Mueller is honored to be a part of the story for so many of her students. 

“One of the most amazing things about is teaching is long after I’m gone there will be a ripple effect. There will be children I taught that are now teaching or teaching things I taught them to their children,” she said. “Knowing that kid and truly having the chance to have an impact that can change the trajectory of everything for them for the rest of their life. That’s powerful, and I don’t know that there’s many other professions where you get that.”

“The Honor Role,” an official podcast for Fayette County Public Schools, features employees, rotating through key stakeholders, including teachers, staff, nurses, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers. Join us as we dive in and learn about their journeys, their inspirations, and their whys.

Episodes are available on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and promoted on the social media channels of Fayette County Public Schools.

Episodes will also be available here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2200811.