Ralene Gideon Bio

Mrs. Gideon

Mrs. Gideon teaches Geometry, Algebra 2, PreCalculus, and AP Calculus at Concordia High School.

She has been teaching for 36 years (32 in public education and four at CHS). Her first  teaching job was at Hays High School at a whopping $11,000 a year! Her then boyfriend and now husband, who was also teaching and coaching, had to buy her groceries and put gas in her car in order for her to survive. 

Ralene attended Angelo State University for one year and transferred to Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos (known now as Texas State University) where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in business and mathematics education.

One thing that most people don't know about her is that she (along with 3 other REALLY fast girls; she claims she was not the fast one) competed at the state track meet and held the 800 meter relay record at her high school for 25 years. She held it for the 880 yard relay, but  running tracks were being converted to the metric measurements in the late 1970's, so the record in yards could be considered "perpetual" as it can't ever be broken.   The team was recently inducted into the Llano High School Hall of Fame @LISDNews.

It is not a "crazy" bucket list item, but a bucket list item nonetheless. She and her husband are working their way through the national parks. They are currently through half of the parks. "What treasures they are and beautiful examples of God's hand in nature!"

Unsure that Katherine Goebel Johnson classifies as a "historical figure", but how Ralene would have loved to spend a day with her.  Mrs. Johnson was an African-American mathematician featured in the movie "Hidden Figures."  It was her calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA "computer" that were critical to the success of the first and several subsequent manned space flights.  Katherine passed away earlier this year at the age of 101.