This year’s sixth grade at Bowmar Elementary has seen a lot change over the past seven years, but there’s been a constant in their lives: Camille Buxton.

Sixth grade teacher Buxton began teaching seven years ago at Bowmar Elementary, where she taught the same group of kids she is teaching now. She also taught the group in fourth grade.

“I’m having my first-year students back,” she said. “It’s going to be kind of emotional.”

Buxton taught kindergarten for four years before moving to fourth grade, and this year will be her first year to teach sixth grade.

Buxton said she has loved watching this year’s sixth-grade class grow.

“From kindergarten to fourth and now they’re so much more mature in sixth grade,” she said. “To see them grow as far as intellectually, and in their own person is very rewarding. To see them leave will be the hard part.”

Sixth grade student Frances Thames said Buxton was her first teacher at Bowmar and she will be her last.

“It was cool because she was always there with us,” she said. “Even if I wasn’t in her class or in her grade, she would always be there for me because we have that good connection.”

Thames said Buxton’s history with the students is beneficial in the classroom.

“She knows what some of the other teachers don’t know about our learning,” she said. “We always know what she’s going to do, and we know her family. It’s easier because she’s a teacher we already know.”

Buxton said her favorite quote about teaching is “To teach is to touch a life forever.”

“That’s what I do; I want to touch lives,” she said. “Not just with teaching, but with listening to them and loving them. If they feel you love them, they will do anything.”

Buxton, an Alcorn State and Mississippi College graduate, worked in retail before making a career change.

“I started subbing here (at Bowmar Elementary) when my kids were here,” she said. “I long-term subbed, and I realized this is what I wanted to do.”

Buxton said she fell in love with being in the schools.

“We have kids here who need us,” she said. “I love them. Even if I have a bad day, I wake up excited to come to work because I love what I do.”

In her free time, Buxton enjoys spending time with her family; husband Warner, daughter Emani, 20, sons Warner Jr., 16, and Brandon, 13, and nephew Christian Dunn, 17.

Buxton, a member of Triumph Church, is a Sunday School teacher, AWANA’s leader and choir member.