So…I’m not in Ireland and I haven’t posted anything on here
since I was there, but I felt compelled to write this and it wouldn't fit in a
Facebook post so…here it goes!
My neighbor Angie* has two daughters Ellie* (9) and Maddie* (almost
7) and we were chatting today about their teachers for Fourth and First grade,
and it made me incredibly nostalgic. Only one of my primary classroom teachers
is still teaching in the same grade as when I attended Granby, and only a small
fraction of the teachers who I felt instrumental to my experience are still
teaching at Granby at all. It got me thinking about my favorite memories from each
teacher and from each year, and as I am going to be leaving for my senior year
in college in a little less than a week, I think it’s appropriate to look back
to the beginning of my educational career.
First Grade: Ms. Clement
The thing I most clearly remember from this year is reading
group. We were split into different reading groups and, I don’t mean to brag,
but I was in the highest level, which meant I got to read a series of books and
then write my own story. Ms. Clement encouraged us to be as creative as
possible in our stories. Once we had written them, we got to go to the office—which
was a HUGE deal—and have them bound. We got to choose three symbols from the
die-cut machine, and we picked wallpaper to put around the cardboard cover for
our books. I still have mine (somewhere…I think…) and I can’t wait to have the
rush of memories come back again when I re-find it.
Second Grade: Mrs. Minor
Mrs. Minor introduced me to poetry for the first time. She
had us memorize a poem every week, and then once we knew it we had to recite it
in front of the class. She taught me that I had to face my fears of getting up
in front of a big group and talking. There was a big difference between being a
know-it-all from your seat and a perfect performer of a poem. I still remember
the first poem we had to memorize:
Fuzzy wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy,
was he?
Third Grade: Mr. Frederick
My first male teacher. It was scary as an eight year old who’d
never had one before! He was one of my favorites. He brought me to Roald Dahl
and my classmates that year became some of my best friends in elementary
school. He taught me how to play chess and that the news was important, even
for kids. But most importantly, he gave me my “no tolerance” attitude on
bullying, but with kindness behind it. You see, I had to get glasses that year
and one of the boys in my class decided that it would be okay to call me “four-eyes”
which devastated me. I was teary-eyed when Mr. Frederick asked what had
happened and he took the boy aside and explained to him calmly, but firmly, why
what he said was wrong and had him apologize to me.
Fourth Grade: Mrs. Dickie
Mrs. Dickie was the most no-nonsense teacher I had. She didn’t
allow students to get away with things in class, and it was such an awesome
experience. Fourth grade was the first year where we “switched classes” so I
had Mr. Korn and Ms. Paris too, but I loved Mrs. Dickie. She was such a great
lover of all knowledge: she taught Math—God bless her—and made it fun; and she
got me to read one of my favorite books, Holes,
that I never would have read without her prompting.
Fifth Grade: Mrs. Sartor
Mrs. Sartor, or Old Lady Sartor as she called herself, gave
me so much. I will never be taller than her—despite the fact that my height
eclipsed hers by halfway through the year—and she gave me my favorite number:
eleventy-six. I will always remember how she encouraged me, challenged me, and
laughed with me throughout the year. Fifth grade was my favorite year not just
because of her, but because of our class. I ended up seated next to three boys—Josh,
Daniel, and Jedi—and I thought, “Oh no, I’m the only girl, they’re going to
tease me SO MUCH.” How wrong I was. I loved sitting next to them because I
could talk to them about Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean and
Harry Potter and they didn’t think I was weird. It was awesome. But the most
poignant memory I have of that year was our valentines. On February 14, instead
of doing Valentine’s Day boxes and buying cardboard valentines, Mrs. Sartor
made 20-something giant hearts, and gave us each enough sticky notes to write a
message to each person in the class which couldn’t be “you’re nice” or “you’re
cool”. They had to be genuine compliments. Then we read them out loud. It was
beautiful.
Sixth Grade: Mrs. Watson
Let me just start by saying that Mrs. Watson had a reading
couch in her room. A COUCH. Everyone initially wanted to be in her class just
for that, but as soon as you had her, you realized how much you’d lucked out.
She didn’t allow the EPP kids to have any breaks: we did all the work that the
other students did, and we were never treated any differently because she
believed in fairness. I remember specifically having to be paired with a girl I
didn’t like for a science experiment and I complained to her about it. She wasn’t
mean, but she explained to me that people are people and we have to learn to
work with them, no matter what. She taught me that everyone deserves your
kindness and your respect, no matter how they treat you.
EPP: Mrs. Beyer
Mrs. Beyer was the most formative teacher I had at Granby.
She taught me in what’s called “EPP” or the Extended Projects Program, a gifted
program at my elementary school, for five years. She taught me how to write,
how to think outside the box, and how to program a robot. She awakened a love
for the human stories of history that I would never have found without her, and
she encouraged my love of fantasy literature. I will never be able to thank her
for the confidence in my intelligence that she gave me, and the joy that I came
to in her class. Mrs. Beyer showed me that the cool kids were the smart kids,
and that I didn't have to be ashamed of being smart.
These are just moments in time that I happen to recall, and
I encourage everyone to think back to that time in their lives. It’s an amazing
time. I keep remembering more and more, but this post is already a little long!
*Names changed to protect privacy as I didn't ask their mother before writing and posting this!
