March 28, 2024

‘Mr. Mac’ leads final lessons at CCHS

Longtime physics, chemistry teacher retiring

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For most of the past decade, Jim McCracken has worked in his “dream job” at Creston Community High School.

He was patient in arriving in that position, just like he was in making a career choice at age 26.

But, in the end, it worked out so well that as he retires from education later this month, he said he’s far from burned out after 42 years as a teacher and administrator.

“I love being here with the students every day,” said the longtime science teacher at CCHS. “I just think it’s time. (Wife) Pam has been retired for three years from the county engineer’s office. Our kids are living in California, Grays Lake, Illinois, and West Des Moines. We have grandchildren living seven hours away north of Chicago. My health is good and I enjoy things like boating, skiing and snow skiing. I don’t want to teach so long that I don’t have my health and can’t do anything.”

McCracken and custodian Larry Means (see separate story) are the only retirees in the local school district this year. Students in the higher science disciplines of physics and chemistry will miss his meticulous lesson plans and labs that made learning fun, with a few “corny jokes” mixed in for good measure.

“He’s always funny, cracking jokes,” said junior Breanna Wallace. “But he’s very thorough, too. I’m interested in going into the medical field, and he makes chemistry easy to get. He takes an interest in us. He puts newspaper clippings on his cabinet about things students have done.”

Students inspired

Kyle Jennett recently completed his sophomore year at Iowa State University and said his decision to major in aerospace engineering was triggered by something he looked at one day on the wall of “Mr. Mac’s” classroom.

“We were learning about astrodynamics and he had the chart of Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion,” Jennett said. “It’s the space aspect of physics and I decided to pursue that at Iowa State.”

Jennett hopes to someday work for NASA or Spacex, a private company in the aerospace industry.

“I took chemistry and physics and Mr. McCracken always makes the material interesting and gets students involved,” Jennett said.

Alli Thomsen recently completed her freshman year at Grand View University as a biochemistry major in the university’s pre-dentistry program. She said McCracken inspired her to go deeper into scientific studies.

“He always found fun and creative ways for us to learn,” Thomsen said. “He came in with a lot of energy and was really positive. I had Chem 101 my first semester at Grand View and a lot of what we had in class he had taught me in high school.”

Gracie Russell is a student at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural business. Even though she’s not in a science field as a career choice, McCracken’s classes were among her favorites in high school.

“He always had a key line, like ‘Attention K-Mart Shoppers!’ You knew that was something important to know,” Russell said. “You could tell he really cares about you, no matter what your background is or where you’re headed in life. It was easy to joke back and forth with him. When we were studying the galaxy he’d bring in Milky Way bars or those Dove chocolate bars with little sayings in the wrappers, and he’d pass those out for answering questions correctly.”

It’s ironic that someone with that much passion for connecting with students never gave teaching a second thought when he took his only education class as an Iowa State University student — the history of education.

“I thought it was boring,” he said with a smile. “My dad was a veterinarian in Denison and I got interested in science after following him around. I majored in zoology and minored in chemistry and psychology. I did not know what I wanted to do with it.”

As a college graduate in 1970, McCracken suddenly found himself in 1A draft status during the Vietnam War and was drafted in June. He served two years in the U.S. Army in Berlin, Germany, and returned to Iowa State to complete his master’s in physiology.

Career decision

It was during that stint, when he was assigned teaching assistant duties, that McCracken suddenly found his calling at age 26.

“I got a teaching assistantship for two quarters,” McCracken said. “The first was a general zoology course and the next was physiology and anatomy. I realized that’s what I wanted to do, so I went and talked to an education teacher and asked what I needed to do to become a teacher.”

He had education classes to complete and a student-teaching stint at Ames High School a year later. In the fall of 1975, McCracken began his teaching career at Baxter High School northwest of Newton.

In 1988, after getting his master’s degree at Drake University, McCracken got into administration as high school principal at Earlham.

“I didn’t think I wanted to be a principal to begin with, because I loved the classroom,” McCracken said. “But, when you’re teaching several different classes and you have five preps for 45-minute periods, it wears on you. I thought being a principal would be a new challenge, and I ended up doing it for 15 years.”

At Earlham he worked with Tim Hood, who became superintendent of Creston Community Schools, and current special education teacher and football coach Brian Morrison. When McCracken thought about returning to classroom work, an opening for a shared science teacher in Creston and East Union for the 2003-04 school year caught his attention.

“I did that for five years and it was the best decision I ever made,” McCracken said. “I knew I would be happier teaching every day again. When Sherri Huff left to take a job in Des Moines, her job and her classroom came open. I took Sherri’s chemistry classes and kept my physics classes and got this nice, big room to work in with a nice area for lab preps. It’s been my dream job.”

McCracken said he tries to incorporate hands on learning in labs and student activities, and asks students to call on each other for answers to keep them engaged.

“I think that helps pique their interest,” McCracken said. “I try to mix in a little humor, tell some stupid jokes. I’m hoping some of the stuff that we do in physics or chemistry sticks with them, or at least maybe they are not afraid of science as they go on.”

Attends events

Bill Messerole, Creston Community High School principal, said McCracken’s presence at nearly every home school activity is noticed by students, and appreciated.

“Regardless of whether it’s athletics or fine arts, he rarely misses a home event,” Messerole said. “He does that so he can see a kid in the hallway the next day and remark about the performance. He builds relationships with those kids.”

Having another former administrator in the building can be an asset as well, Messerole said.

“He’s incredibly detail-oriented and, in that regard, a great example for the teaching staff,” Messerole said. “In an 84-minute block, he has things planned out right down until the bell rings. Jim has a vast toolbox of teaching materials and ways to help students. We’ve had a lot of good discussions over the years about things. He’s the consummate professional.”

A public retirement ceremony for McCracken will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. June 11 at Crest Baptist Church. All former students and staff members are welcome.