This is Teacher Appreciation Week.
I am a teacher.
This doesn't mean I can't appreciate my teachers as well. So I would like to take a moment to appreciate several teachers of mine over the years. These are people who have influenced me and played large roles in molding who I am today as a teacher and adult.
The first teacher I would like to acknowledge is my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Kriesen. I have written about her before. I model much of what I do after her style. She made that year one of the most enjoyable. It wasn't because she made the work easy. It wasn't because her lessons were particularly hands-on or interactive by today's standards. This was a Catholic school and the lesson format was pretty traditional or old school. Plenty of worksheets and textbooks and workbooks filled our lessons. I do not recall that she deviated much from that format.
But she made the days so enjoyable despite all of that boring skill and drill work. She had a hilarious sense of humor and often used it. She was always joking and making us laugh or smile. She was very energetic about everything she did. She said a number of things that I still think about today.
First, she said to, "go with your gut. Your first guess is right 90% of the time." I doubt that is entirely true, but I have remembered it to this day.
Second, she accurately predicted, "middle school will be a nightmare. High school will be where you find yourself and enjoy yourself most." I wouldn't say I "found" myself in high school, but it was immeasurably better than middle school.
She made me write with detail and incorporate figurative language. She made my description of Friday night pizza and Pepsi that was a family tradition at that time feel like Pulitzer Prize material.
She strategically sat me next to a talkative girl to get me to talk more and open up. What teacher tries to get her students to talk MORE? She saw off curriculum growth for me and tried to make that happen.
Much of my teaching style today comes from that year learning from her. My goal has been and still is to make my students feel the way about their time with me as I do about my time with her.
The next teacher I would like to show my appreciation for is Mrs. Simmelink. She was my 10th grade English teacher. She was mean and nasty, She was the opposite of Mrs. Kriesen. She pointed out my quiet demeanor and used it against me. She would call on me trying to prove I wasn't listening or didn't do the reading. I have vivid memories of a particular class discussion regarding To Kill A Mockingbird. It was after Christmas break and I had just returned from a visit to my grandmother's house in Alabama. She was a college English professor. She was well versed in TKAM. There was some connection with the author or something I have already forgot. Anyway, I was well prepared for anything and everything thrown at me about that book.
She peppered me with piercing questions and every one I exceeded expectations. Soon, this fueled my fire. I was intoxicated with this give and take. I think she knew it the whole time. As far as I was concerned, no one else was in that room other than her. She was my enemy. I would defeat her.
She had me right where she wanted me.
I have a story about her that I use every year with my students when we write personal narratives.
The one I wrote for her blew her away. It was about my cousin and brother and I and a funny bit of confusion. It was both the funniest ad scariest moment of my life. Or at least funny and scary enough to write about. In it, I made my brother out as a not-so-complimentary character.
Two years later she had my brother for 10th grade English. Apparently his story did not meet her standards. He was the opposite of me in class that year. So she made him march down to my class and grab my portfolio to read my story as an example of what he should be writing.
Well, that didn't go over well after he read how I described him in that story. So he proceeded to write his take on the same experience embellishing everything to make him out as a strong, superior character to me. It was hilarious.
This woman really knew what buttons to press. She was a sorceress of education.
At the end of the year I had two A's, two B's. An A on an exam and a B on an exam. That usually would lead to a final grade of a B. But she gave me an A hoping it would go through. She pulled me aside later and asked if it did. I said yes. I still can see that sly smile on her face and the look of content.
She knew it all along.
She is the reason I think I would have thrived under a Bobby Knight, old school sort of coach. For some reason, I respond to that hell and brimstone approach.
I have to add two other educators that have strongly influenced me. My boss, or principal at my first elementary school of employment, Mrs. Gant. I taught for her at an urban school where our scores were never anything to write home about although we showed steady growth during her time there.
But I know better than to measure a school's success on test scores. I believed in her more than anyone else I have worked for in education. Although my current boss may be right there with her. We shall see. I felt if there was a prototype for what an urban principal should be, it was her.
Her vision and dedication were top shelf. I learned so much from her that I can't list it all. Her focus helped me focus. I learned how to prioritize and always ask myself, "how is this improving student achievement?" Her range of influence is much greater than that one simple statement, but that was the umbrella everything else fell under.
Finally, another educator I have written about before, Ms. Yetts. My partner at my old school, she and I had a synergy that drove me to be better every year. She was simply amazing how she related to the kids and always thought of new ways to improve our weaknesses and get better. We were able to be honest and open and that made us better every day and every new school year.
There are countless other educators in my life. I could go on about my parents, my wife and on and on. I am developing relationships currently with fellow educators that have taught me a great deal. These people are just four. I greatly appreciate what they have offered and provided for me, making me the teacher I am today and that I hope students will write blog posts about in the future.
