This one is LONG, mainly because there are so many wonderful peop
le out there who have influenced who I am and what I believe, so bear with me. :)
I feel compelled to share with you about the teachers
who have impacted my life and why.
First, is Mrs.
Maxine Moore. She was my 2nd grade
teacher in Lincoln, NE. Shortly after
school started my 2nd grade year, my father was killed in Vietnam. He was coming in to an airfield from a
mission and crashed his plane just three miles short of the runway. To this day, no one is quite sure why. Mrs. Moore went, what I now know, above and
beyond to help me. You see, in my small
little 2nd grade mind, I thought that since my father died while I was at
school, my mom would, too. I remember
hiding under the kitchen table and refusing to come out. Mrs. Moore let me come into her classroom
before the rest of the class to be her "assistant." She didn't need one. It was just to help me acclimate.
After my mom
remarried, I wrote to Mrs. Moore. When I
attended college at the University of Nebraska, Mrs. Moore, now retired, would
invite me over for Sunday dinner and offered her home as a quite place for me
to study for tests and we visited, frequently, about questions I might have in
my classes. From Mrs. Moore I remembered
and learned that teachers need to be compassionate.
Next, Mr. Larry Fletcher. He taught high school English in our tiny
farming community. Because one section
of English was during band, all the band kinds were in the same class. BIG MISTAKE!!
We were all such GREAT friends!!
Back story: My mom is and speech pathologist. She had a student who was deaf. The student spent a couple of summers at our
house, learning to sign. I learned how
right along with him. I taught it to all
my friends, too. As we got older, those
friends were in band with me.
Back to
English: To practice for our spelling
test, we would play password with our spelling words, boys against girls. The girls would always choose me as their
captain. I would spell the word under
the desk and we'd ALWAYS get it on the first try (naturally!!) :) The
boys could never figure it out! They
even said I couldn't be the captain. It
didn't matter since all of us knew sign language!
Also, Mr.
Fletcher would also make sure that I was one point from an "A" at the
end of each quarter. He would tell me
that I needed to bake him something to get the "A." My senior year, I may have been a bit mouthy
and refused to bake for him. To this
day, my grade card has an "A" with four minus signs beside it.
Mr. Fletcher's
wife was a fifth grade teacher in our little school. They were one of six to ten teachers that
spent Friday nights, after ball games, out at our farm, singing John Denver
songs, telling stories, and sharing pot luck food. Every Spring Break, these same people went
snow skiing with our family. When my boyfriend and I broke up my senior year,
Mr. Fletcher came out to our farm to see if I was okay. I still correspond with him and his
wife. <3 Such great memories!! From Mr. Fletcher, I learned that teaching
can be fun!
Mrs. Diane
Knutson. I am Facebook friends with
her. She is now in Wyoming. She was our band director. We were her first students after she
graduated from the University of South Dakota.
She pushed us so hard! All of our
hard work paid off. With her leadership,
we scored many superior ratings in concert band, jazz band, small groups, and
solos. She and her husband, a band
director in a neighboring town, were also part of the Friday night group. From Mrs. K, I learned that students will
meet, even exceed, expectations. I just
depends on where you set the bar.
Mrs. Fran
Conneally. She taught Senior
Government. Talk about pushing us! She was the Queen of Handouts! I later learned that she did this to enhance
our lessons. She was the ONLY teacher to
assign a research paper, with a bibliography, my entire high school
career! I will be forever thankful for
that assignment, which I stayed up until 1 a.m. typing (on a manual typewriter
set up on a card table in my bedroom).
With only five students continuing onto a four-year college, I needed to
know how to do a research paper. Our
last day of our senior year, true to our expectations, she said, "I have a
handout." We all rolled our eyes
and groaned. It was a letter to all of
us, telling us how much she had learned from US! :)
Again, I learned that students will achieve, and surpass, the teacher's
expectations. Students just need to know
the teacher believes they can do it!
Lastly, an
instructor I had when getting my masters.
Honestly, I don't even remember his name. I was part of a cohort of fifteen teachers in
a previous school district. We had an
AMAZING cohort for a year and a half!!
Most all of our classwork was discussion, hands on kinds of
activities. I would recommend it to
anyone thinking of getting a masters!
However, this particular instructor loved to hear himself talk. He didn't even like to call on us if we
raised our hand for clarification or to ask a question. It was very frustrating! Being the optimist that I am, I just HAD to
find something positive about this class.
Finally, he gave
it to me! He was the instructor who
encouraged us to start building relationships with families before school ever
started!! He challenged us to call the
families and introduce ourselves as their child's teacher, invite them to Open
House, give out our cell phone numbers (they can't be traced to your home. :) ) and to call each family a couple of
times and month, just to touch base. He
stated that if you build positive relationships with families early in the
year, they are more receptive if and when something negative comes up.
I started doing
this immediately! Most of the parents
were shocked that I was calling! Then
they were pleasantly surprised! I have
to admit, I am a believer now!! I give
parents the caveat that they should call after 6 a.m. or before 9 p.m., because
any time outside of that, I can't promise that I will be able to give them a logical,
well thought-out response. :) I tell them that I have unlimited texting and
messages and that they should feel free to contact me.
Because I am an
Early Childhood teacher, 31 years of either kindergarten or preschool, I can't
tell you the number of times I've needed to send a text because someone is in
tears because they forgot a library book or because they didn't wear tennis
shoes on a PE day!!
From this
instructor in my masters program, I learned the true value of building relationships
not just with my babes, but with the whole family!
These folks,
mentioned above, are the best of the best.
They have all challenged me and helped to mold me into the teacher I
strive to be every day. They have all of
my love and gratitude!
