Cedar Park teacher Reba Vuncannon shows the issue of The Mailbox which had her teaching idea published in it. (Democrat photo/Mark Randall)

Reba Vuncannon had gotten a lot of ideas over the years from a teacher's magazine called The Mailbox and used many of those ideas in her classroom.

The magazine has been providing grade-specific ideas, activities and skill building exercises to educators across America for over 30 years.

In the December issue, teachers across the country will have a chance to use one of Vuncannon's own ideas to help their students learn odd and even numbers.

Vuncannon, a second grade teacher at Cedar Park Elementary School, drew a dinosaur and used the scales on its back to help them identify what each number is.

"They were having trouble memorizing odd and even numbers," Vuncannon said. "I just drew up a scale one day on the board and put even numbers on the top and odd on the bottom. If you can climb a scale, you can remember odd and even numbers. It seemed liked it helped them."

Vuncannon said she sent the idea in to The Mailbox several months ago and got a letter back from the magazine saying that they had decided to publish the idea, but would let her know which issue it would appear in.

"They get so many ideas sent to them," Vuncannon said. "They said they would send me a copy when it appears."

Vuncannon said she was thrilled when she found out her idea was going to appear in print because she reads the magazine all the time looking for ideas and knew hers would now reach other teachers across the country.

The magazine was started in 1973 by Marge and Jake Michael who were frustrated by the lack of ready-to-use materials for the classroom.

The ideas are all submitted by other educators with classroom experience and help speed up planning time so teachers can spend more time teaching.

"A lot of teachers subscribe to it to get ideas from," Vuncannon said. "That's what helps you - getting ideas from other teachers."

Vuncannon said as far as she knows, she is the first teacher from Trumann to have one of their ideas appear in print.

A colleague recently posted the story on the bulletin board outside of the teacher's lounge.

"They were really surprised," Vuncannon said. "I don't think anybody has ever gotten published before."

She has since had two other ideas accepted by the magazine as well -- "Work to Crow About," which features a rooster cutout where the children can write good things they did in school they want to crow about, and a similar concept called "Toad-illy Cool" featuring a toad character note pad where they can write down what they learned at the end of their first grade year.

Both idea will appear in a future edition of The Mailbox.

Vuncannon received a $20 gift certificate from the magazine to use toward buying school supplies.