McGill isn’t a doctor or a nurse, but she plays a very important role at the hospital—teaching patients at Childrens’ Medical Day Treatment center.  Just like an old one-room school house, she teaches fifteen students ranging in age from 7 to 21.  “Because they’ve been so sick and they’ve missed so much school they tend to be behind,” said McGill.  “It’s a challenge, but its lot of fun.”

Every day Paulette and her volunteers tutor students on everything from Math to Science to Social Studies—at the grade level of each of her students.  “She provides individualized education for each child and works to meet the educational needs through a variety of educational techniques,” wrote Arletta Swain-Cockrell in a nomination letter.  ”She gets to know each child, and their family.”

On top of the typical challenges of teaching, McGill must also consider the students’ medical treatment and disabilities into her lessons.  “It has to be a holistic approach, because everything in their life affects what happens in the classroom.”

McGill works closely with other hospital staff to understand what every student is going through.  “If it takes everybody in this hospital to figure out what needs to be done with a child, than that’s what we do.”

Whether she’s helping a high school student reach the requirements to graduate or teaching a student the multiplication tables, McGill says the students enjoy coming to her classroom.  “No matter how sick a child is, they want to learn.”

Please join 9NEWS and College Invest in saluting Paulette McGill, the October 2006 9Teacher Who Cares.

McGill’s story will air on 9NEWS 6AM on Friday October 13th and 9NEWS Saturday Morning on Saturday October 14th.