A Year of Blogging: May 3, 2011

May 3 was National Teacher's Day. Although it could have been May 4. My newspaper print out says it's the fourth, but holidayinsights.com says it's the Tuesday in the first full week in May, which would mean it fell on the 3rd this year. There may have been a brief point in time that I wanted to be a teacher. What little girl didn't? Girls my age grew up watching 'Little House on the Prairie'. We watched Laura change from the tomboy with braids flying to the sophisticated teacher with her hair in the neat bun. I honestly don't know if that's why I wanted to be a teacher, but I suspect it was. My favorite part of Little House on the Prairie are the episodes that Laura is older and teaching. People have often suggested that I should be a teacher. No. I know that's the wrong career path for me. When people ask why I know teaching isn't for me, I say 'because I'd slap the little brats'. I know, yesterday I said I like it when kids argue with me. And I do... to a point. And once you cross that point, my patience is non-existent. Ask me in another 10 years if I like arguing with Sydney! I have a terrific respect for teachers. There are teachers who had a big impact on me. I still know their names, years after I was in their class. I've already talked about Mrs. Hogue, my kindergarten teacher. My second grade teacher encouraged my love of reading. Mrs. Bentley seemed old when I was in her class, in the early 1980s. The first day of school, she read the attendance list and then started calling for Kathy. There were no Kathy's in the class. When she said Kathy Wager, I knew she meant me. Kathy is my mom. That confirmed Mrs. Bentley was old- she had taught my mom! For the entire school year, Mrs. Bentley called me Kathy. She held a contest in the class- the student who read the most books by the end of the year would win a special prize. From the first day, I was certain I could win this contest. I loved to read! At the beginning of the year, there were many of us in the running. As the year went on, other students fell out. In the last month, I was in the lead, another girl was close behind. So just to make sure, I read more books and then a few extra. I did win. Mrs. Bentley gave me a pretty emerald necklace (I'm sure it wasn't a real emerald). She thought my birthday was in May. When she realized it was in June, she told me to keep the necklace, and she got me something with my own birthstone. She was very sweet, kind, and a wonderful teacher. She was jubilant, and I don't think I ever saw her without a smile. I loved every minute of second grade. Mrs. Bentley continued to live just down the road from my parents until her death in August, 2009. I was home when her obituary appeared in the paper, but the services had already been held. I was surprised to find she was only 83. She had always seemed so much older. Mom said she always asked about me. I was also blessed in fourth and fifth grades with wonderful teachers. Ms. Koepp was my fourth grade teacher. She seemed so old too. I think she's still alive, and she's probably only in her 80s. Ms. Koepp was tall and very thin. She was kind of earthy- her family had a large farm nearby. For years we went there in the summer to get fresh produce. She taught us cursive writing. I can still see the cursive alphabet stretching around the room, above the chalk board. Fifth grade was a new experience- we had Mr. Lewin. It was the first time I had a male teacher. Mr. Lewin was the Principal of the school, and it was rumored that he had a paddle in his drawer. I was terrified of him. Until I had him as a teacher. He remains one of my favorites. The class he had the year ahead of me was a problem class. He told them on graduation day that he had never had a class that had been such a disappointment. But the way he told it was something like "I've never, in all my years of teaching, had a class that..." and the students were feeling pretty good about themselves. Then he finished his sentence. In sixth grade, we started having different teachers for different subjects; just as we would for the rest of our school career. Many of the teachers after sixth grade who had made such an impression on me are those who taught the subjects I enjoyed, and continue to enjoy. In 7th Grade it was Mr. Miller, our English teacher. He also taught my mom- although when he taught mom's class he was a new teacher and it was his first year teaching. His children were around our ages. Mr. Miller taught us how to write letters. I use those skills every day at work. Every time someone compliments me on my letter-writing ability, I tell them I owe it to my 7th grade English teacher. The year my sister had Mr. Miller, he started a special project to get through to the students with the letter-writing unit. So he had the students send letters to famous people asking for an autograph. It continued until he retired two years ago. The famous people responded, and the autographed photos were framed and hung around the room. I forget how many he had at the time of retirement, but several stories have been written about it. Here's a link to one of them: http://nysut.org/newyorkteacher/2005-2006/051208autographs.html The project became famous on it's own in our school district. And students wanted to write letters! My 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Webster, pushed my creative writing buttons. When others in the class groaned when he made us work on our creative writing, I begged for more minutes. I wrote in study hall, at home, sometimes in other classes. We had him for 9th grade English as well, and I loved it. By this time, I knew I was headed into an English related field as a career. The creative writing didn't surface again in class until 11th grade English with Mrs. Kavanaugh. Then I had English, plus a creative writing course, and Journalism. All with the same wonderful teacher. She loved to write, and encouraged us. I didn't care for the English teachers who were all about Shakespeare and Chaucer (my apologies to my friend, Patricia!). I connected with the English teachers who were also authors and poets. They understood me and nurtured the writer within. There were some non-English teachers in high school that were not only incredible teachers and mentors, but friends. I dropped Chemistry to take Creative Writing and Journalism. When I told the Chemistry teacher I didn't see myself ever using Chemistry, but I planned to go into an English based field, he was very kind. He thanked me for being honest, signed the add/drop form, and wished me well. There were certain requirements I had to meet in order to graduate with a Regents Diploma (which was the 'college-track'). Since I dropped Chemistry, I had to take extra business courses. That turned out to be a blessing. Mrs. Klein, the business teacher, was wonderful. We learned keyboarding on old computers (the screens were black with a yellowish green type. There were no font styles or colors.). You had to type 40 or 45 wpm (it's was nearly 20 years ago, I forget the exact requirement) by the end of the year to pass. I struggled to get to that point, and just barely made it. I think she'd be so proud to know I'm up in the 75+ wpm now! The business classes have also come in handy in my day to day work over the years. The two Global Studies teachers, (Global Studies is also known as Social Studies), Mr. Recore and Mr. Fisher were both incredible teachers. You learned a lot from them. Mr. Recore looked like Victor on the Young and the Restless. He was an avid college basketball fan, and a huge Indiana University and Bobby Knight fan. Every year, he revealed his final four picks in class (with similarly as much fanfare as President Obama reveals his). IU was always in the Final Four, and nine times out of ten was his pick to win it all. When I told him I was going to college in Indiana, he was the only person who didn't look at me like Indiana was in outer space. When I went home for break, he asked me if I ever got up to see the big school. Hanover had recently hosted some sort of sports banquet, and Bobby Knight was there. I told Mr. Recore I hadn't been to see the big school, but when Bobby Knight wanted to see a real school he came to mine! Mr. Fisher was an incredibly tough teacher. He expected a lot. He challenged me, and I like to be challenged. We had debates in his class on Fridays. His classes always left the emotions on fire, but I learned so much. Many people didn't like him because he was so tough, but that made me enjoy his classes so much more. Every one of us has teachers that made a difference to us. So to all the teachers- current or retired, thank you!