Entering Lawrence English teacher Carol Souders’ room for the first time, you might think “Am I in the right place?”

It seems more like a teenager’s bedroom: A basketball, a football and a few images of Napoleon Dynamite stand out on a crowded bulletin board. A toilet seat that was decorated in poetry hangs near her desk. Her filing cabinet is tattooed with words such as “hermaphrodite,” “pessimistic” and “onomatopoeia.” And paint-brushed near the ceiling is the gibberishly defiant poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll.

“My room is decorated by my students,” Souders said, explaining the decor of her third-floor classroom at Central Junior High School.

She said her students bring in three-dimensional items for her bulletin board and even volunteer to decorate it.

Souders, who has been a teacher at Central for 18 years, recently was honored as Sunflower Bank’s Teacher of the Month for September.

“She was extremely surprised, which made it even that much more enjoyable,” said Jacque Redwine, the bank’s branch manager.

Souders was picked based on a nomination by student Clair Murphy-Beach.

“Mrs. Souders’ class is never boring,” Murphy-Beach wrote.

Murphy-Beach talked about how she liked the way Souders gave students nicknames, loved chocolate and put up “Napoleon Dynamite”-themed objects.

Carol Souders, a seventh-grade English teacher at Central Junior High School, foreground, participates in a skit during the school's Fun Run assembly. From left are Carice Riemann, Central WRAP social worker, Souders, and teachers Kate Welch, Pat Naughton and Scott Forkenbrock. Souders is the most recent recipient of Sunflower Bank's Teacher of the Month award.

“Every seventh-grader with an older brother or sister always wants Mrs. Souders,” the student wrote.

“Carol is a wonderful teacher,” said Frank Harwood, Central’s principal. “She does a great job at establishing relationships with students.”

What’s the secret to being a good teacher?

“I think you have to love kids and just enjoy being around them,” Souders said. “They can sense if you don’t like them.”

Souders teaches reading, writing, grammar and the parts of speech to seventh-graders, an age group going through a period of physical and intellectual growth.

“They can make me crazy. But I like that challenge. It makes my job interesting all the time,” Souders said. “Certainly you deal with moods. You deal with hormones. You deal with various levels of intelligence.”

She has to adapt the curriculum to what’s going on each day with her students.

“Each day is planned. But some days it doesn’t go the way you plan it,” she said.

Souders, who grew up in Olathe and graduated from Kansas University in 1988, said she didn’t always want to be a teacher.

“I looked a little into advertising,” she said. She also considered the publishing field.

“I’ve had opportunities to do other things,” she said. “But I really enjoy what I do.”

She taught sophomores for a year at Lawrence High School before teaching at Central. For the last six years, she’s concentrated on seventh-graders.

“They’re young enough where you can get through to them, but old enough to handle certain topics as well,” Souders said. “And I really enjoy that. They’re still moldable.”

She said she gets to watch her students grow up during the course of the year.

“You certainly get to see a different level of maturity,” she said. “You see a growth physically and emotionally.”

Souders admitted that she also helps out some of her students who might look hungry – students she knows might not have been able to get much to eat at home.

“Sometimes they need lunch more than I do,” she said.

Some of her fellow teachers at Central also have been known to help out needy families, such as contributing to an electric bill.

“We’ve had teachers do that in the past,” she said. “We have quite a diversity here. And that’s why a lot of people love our school so much. It’s the real world.”

Souders recommended that anyone thinking about getting into teaching should find the right age level and the right subject to teach.

What’s in her future? It most likely will be in her colorfully decorated classroom.

“I’ve thought about other places and other opportunities,” she said. “But I love this school.”