Erik Hoefer returns to the classroom as elementary teacher

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Erik Hoefer spent an early August day re-arranging his new classroom at Lincoln Elementary School.

It wasn’t his first time rummaging through classroom supply boxes before the school year started. It won’t be his last time charting seating arrangements, either. But after he left the district at the end of 2015-2016, it was a surprise to see him return.

One year ago, Hoefer was beginning a Greek course at the Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque.

“That call got stronger and stronger, that in the spring of 2016 it was time to go to seminary,” Hoefer said. “I felt like I was following God’s call there — to go to seminary.”

Hoefer took the collaborative learning program, which allowed him to live in Charles City but attend live classes online through a video/meeting program. Hoefer did spend some time on campus — one week out of the semester attending in person.

“Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to do that. We would not have relocated our family to do that,” Hoefer said.

As part of the program, Hoefer started working 20 hours a week at St. James Lutheran Church in Mason City — as a student pastor, similar to an intern or student teacher. Hoefer had spent 26 years as an elementary teacher before he left for seminary.

Over the year, “a few things happened” that changed Hoefer’s course — “to communicate crystal-clear with me that God put me on the Earth to teach. Because I missed it, a lot,” he said.

It hit him pretty quickly.

“I loved what I was learning at seminary,” Hoefer said. “But quite honestly, it hit me pretty much in September — when school was starting and I was not there.”

“When teachers retire, I hear from them often that August and September are difficult months for them because that’s all they’ve known,” Hoefer said. “Teachers are wired that way, because August and September are just phenomenally exciting months. A new school year is beginning.”

So Hoefer tried to check his feelings in place, focusing on his classwork and congregation in Mason City. In the meantime, he and his wife started discussing what would happen after seminary — when he would be asked to serve at a Lutheran church away from Charles City. The thought of taking their kids out of the Charles City school district was difficult, he said.

Then one day, his wife Sue, a physical education teacher at the Charles City elementary schools, forgot her work laptop at home.

“She texted me and said, ‘Erik, could you bring my laptop in, it’s on the counter,'” Hoefer said.

When he walked in to Washington Elementary School, it took him an hour to go from the office to the gym.

“I ran into people who I hadn’t seen much of, or talked much too. These are people who I love and respect,” Hoefer said. “It was God using them to say, ‘you’re home.'”

When he finally returned the laptop, Hoefer went straight to the district’s administrative office to see if there were any teaching positions open again. He filled out an application and interviewed — and now will teach third grade. Hoefer will continue seminary online, taking one class a semester and watching pre-recorded lectures instead of participating live.

“Will I get to be a pastor somewhere down the road? I hope so, but I got a taste of that, and I really enjoyed it — but it wasn’t teaching,” Hoefer said.

Hoefer and his family are back as church members at St. John’s Lutheran Church, which first fostered his desire to go to seminary, he said. He will continue coaching middle school boys’ cross country, and being the assistant coach for the high school boys’ track team.

The Hoefers also adopted two teenage boys this past March, and have four foster children ages 6 to 14 living with them — “It is amazing, it has just been a wild ride,” he said. “We just have so much fun with them.”

His year away from the classroom has also affected Hoefer’s perspective, and re-cast Hoefer as a student who had to complete reading and writing assignments for his classes. That’s taught him how to view courses like a student again — and how the skills he introduces students to are used in higher education.

After all that, does he feel like a new teacher again?

“I do,” Hoefer acknowledged. He was part of the new teachers’ workshop in early August.

“I felt like I was treated just like any other candidate, which I really appreciated. I would have been very uncomfortable with any extra treatment, simply because any applicant should be treated the way I was treated,” he said.

Once again, standing in the empty elementary classroom, Hoefer’s excitement for the school year shows brightly.

“I just cannot wait,” he said. “This is so crystal-clear now that God made me to be a teacher.”