PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Marcy Bennett always knew she wanted to be a teacher.

She spent her early years working to achieve that goal. Now, 38 years after becoming a teacher, she’s mastered the art of making learning fun and embracing the whole child.

And, as she embarks on retirement, she’s leaving a legacy of learning and love.

"It's not so much what you're teaching. It's how you're teaching,” said Bennett, an intervention teacher at Sandy Lane Elementary. “That's the big thing. Different modalities, do they learn by seeing it, by hearing it, by doing it? Almost always, it's by doing it."

Bennett keeps her kids engaged with a special curriculum and individual attention.

"It's the best feeling in the world,” she said, when the light bulb goes on for her students. “Oh my God, those are some days you feel like, you try not to get emotional, but that's why you do it.

“That's why you do it, because you see the growth. You see that they get it, and that's wonderful. It really, really is.  It makes all the craziness you do after hours worth it."

Bennett, a fixture at Sandy Lane since 1984, said another reward is when old students come back to say hello.

"The best thing of all is when they come back,” she said. “Last week, I had gentleman show up, beard, big guy, and I'm looking at him. I don't say anything, and he goes, 'Ms. Bennett, is that you?"

“I go, 'Yes.'  He goes, 'Do you remember me?' Oh no, I don't remember you. What's your first name? 'Andre'  No way! And I remember his name. Oh my God, come here and I give him a big hug. That's the payback for staying in the same place for 38 years."