Betty Funkhouser is the Health and Physical Education teacher at Hobart Middle School. Funkhouser has been teaching health and PE for 43 years, and her passion for sports and teaching all started in college.
“As I went on through college, I did participate in sports. At that time it was the beginning stages of women's sports, and I just felt like the education classes I had and the professors I had there inspired me. I felt like sports and education was my niche, that teaching was my calling and my passion,” said Funkhouser.
With so many years of teaching, Funkhouser has experienced it all with her students. Funkhouser’s favorite part about being a teacher is being able to teach kids new skills.
“Working with the kids, teaching them a variety of skills, seeing them get excited when they learn a new skill that they couldn't perform before is the best part about teaching," said Funkhouser. "For instance, we teach swimming at our school, and we teach a variety of guides and things to try to get the students excited about swimming. If a student looks like they enjoy it, and their skills are improving, I try to encourage them to join swimming in high school. I try to point kids in the direction of their strength."
Other than teaching at Hobart Middle School, Funkhouser also coaches the middle school cross country team, track team, and seventh-grade basketball.
“I run with my cross-country kids every day at practice. I work out with them, and we have some good talks. If they have something they want to talk about or they're having some kind of issues, I try to help them work through it,” said Funkhouser
When Funkhouser is not teaching or coaching she is at home doing her own training for running races. Funkhouser loves to run, no matter how difficult it can be at times.
“My biggest challenge while running was in 2013. It was the first Indiana trail 100; it was a chain of Lake State Park. You have 30 hours to finish it. It was hard, but I ended up finishing in 29 hours,” said Funkhouser.
Funkhouser has had a passion for running for many years now. Funkhouser started to run races in the '90s.
“I didn't really do races until it was probably in the '90s because I coached high school cross country. The state of Indiana started having teams in the early '80s. I would practice with my kids every Saturday morning, and I never really ran the races with them, but then I started doing some after I started coaching middle school," said Funkhouser. "I've run the Boston Marathon several times. I've run marathons, many halves, ultras, etc. Now I'm on the Nike Pace Team for the Chicago Marathon, I’m a pace leader. I enjoy being a pace leader because I'm able to give back to other people what running has done for me. I believe that you always feel better and you feel accomplished after a race. Whatever was on your mind, you have any problems or issues. They don't seem as bad as they did before you went for your run."
Funkhouser expresses teaching as an adventure. Every day is different for her, and she loves it that way.