Happy Belated Birthday Dan! I neglected to comment on Wednesday which was my birthday as well! Good day! I’ve just had many more of them than you have. I continue to read your columns and follow your adventures with Little Bean with great enjoyment! Well, maybe not the current music tastes you both have, sorry! But your old music is wonderful!
One of the schools I attended was VERY old. It had big wooden doors with a large glass insert in them that opened into the hallway. My fifth grade teacher liked to see it decorated for all the holidays. She would “let loose” several of her students to paint the glass door with poster paints for each holiday. I thought I was Picasso! She also instilled the love of reading in me. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was her favorite…and quickly became mine. She had several of MY kids as students as well. Today she lives in Florida and we still keep in touch through Facebook. She was a gem.
I used to give a homework assignment to my students ( in a graduate class for teachers) to write to a favorite teacher from their past and tell them why, what that teacher might have said, what they use in their own classes that that teacher may have modeled, etc. Oh, the joy of the following classes as they heard back from their teachers! That assignment did not take much time, but we all loved the results, especially the favorite teachers, I imagine!
My uncle RIP...I worked for him in my teens, a little beyond. He was a stone (granite) mason. I learned that hard, physical labor will do many things: create a good work ethic, make me proud of my accomplishments and absolutely appreciate the more cerebral occupations down the line. Also, he was my uncle...not easy sometimes working for a relative, he demanded a lot and treated me with fairness.
Inspiration can come in waves. Way back when I went to college in NJ for art education, I was not supported, and became wanderlust. I moved around and had various jobs- waitress, car wash, bartending, sales, etc. I designed lace and that person told me to take a drafting course because I was great at details. I did, and became an architectural drafter. Got married, Got sick (another story) moved to NH. The drafting background got me a position as a Cartographer and GIS mapper. Got a divorce (still sick) Met someone who was a teacher and learned that I had at one time wanted to be one. He inspired me to go back to school at 43! I got my education degree and masters and taught Science for 22 years! Go figure. Unfortunately, we have lost touch, but I will be forever grateful.
I taught English in a high school down in New Jersey many, many years ago, and one student would come in cheerfully every day and come right up to my desk and ask "what's on the agenda for today?" and whatever lesson it was, he was always excited. Sometimes I would think of him and his question the night before and make sure I did indeed have something interesting. I STILL ask myself (and sometimes my husband) that same question, especially now that we are retired. If the answer is "nothing", we deliberately PUT something on the agenda!!!! Something fun, of course!
My high school geometry and algebra teacher, Mr. Halstead, a.k.a. “Boss”, who made math fun! Two dimensional ellipses and circles that were centered around where the X and Y axes crossed at 0, also known as the origin: “It’s centered ‘round the ‘gin.” When we studied imaginary numbers, which are based on the square root of -1, which is written mathematically as ‘i’: “If Mom-Mom sends you to the store to get 2i bread, what do you bring home?” All said with a wicked grin on his face. He was quirky and goofy, and 45 years later I still remember those classes. Boss Halstead just turned 85 last November. I need to track down an address for him…
I enjoyed reading everyone's stories about people who had made a difference in their lives. For me, it was my 9th grade English teacher who introduced me to honest-to-God literature.
Happy Belated Birthday Dan! I neglected to comment on Wednesday which was my birthday as well! Good day! I’ve just had many more of them than you have. I continue to read your columns and follow your adventures with Little Bean with great enjoyment! Well, maybe not the current music tastes you both have, sorry! But your old music is wonderful!
Oh happy birthday! And I appreciate you being here. Maybe today's post is more up your alley music wise!
One of the schools I attended was VERY old. It had big wooden doors with a large glass insert in them that opened into the hallway. My fifth grade teacher liked to see it decorated for all the holidays. She would “let loose” several of her students to paint the glass door with poster paints for each holiday. I thought I was Picasso! She also instilled the love of reading in me. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was her favorite…and quickly became mine. She had several of MY kids as students as well. Today she lives in Florida and we still keep in touch through Facebook. She was a gem.
I used to give a homework assignment to my students ( in a graduate class for teachers) to write to a favorite teacher from their past and tell them why, what that teacher might have said, what they use in their own classes that that teacher may have modeled, etc. Oh, the joy of the following classes as they heard back from their teachers! That assignment did not take much time, but we all loved the results, especially the favorite teachers, I imagine!
My uncle RIP...I worked for him in my teens, a little beyond. He was a stone (granite) mason. I learned that hard, physical labor will do many things: create a good work ethic, make me proud of my accomplishments and absolutely appreciate the more cerebral occupations down the line. Also, he was my uncle...not easy sometimes working for a relative, he demanded a lot and treated me with fairness.
Inspiration can come in waves. Way back when I went to college in NJ for art education, I was not supported, and became wanderlust. I moved around and had various jobs- waitress, car wash, bartending, sales, etc. I designed lace and that person told me to take a drafting course because I was great at details. I did, and became an architectural drafter. Got married, Got sick (another story) moved to NH. The drafting background got me a position as a Cartographer and GIS mapper. Got a divorce (still sick) Met someone who was a teacher and learned that I had at one time wanted to be one. He inspired me to go back to school at 43! I got my education degree and masters and taught Science for 22 years! Go figure. Unfortunately, we have lost touch, but I will be forever grateful.
I taught English in a high school down in New Jersey many, many years ago, and one student would come in cheerfully every day and come right up to my desk and ask "what's on the agenda for today?" and whatever lesson it was, he was always excited. Sometimes I would think of him and his question the night before and make sure I did indeed have something interesting. I STILL ask myself (and sometimes my husband) that same question, especially now that we are retired. If the answer is "nothing", we deliberately PUT something on the agenda!!!! Something fun, of course!
My high school geometry and algebra teacher, Mr. Halstead, a.k.a. “Boss”, who made math fun! Two dimensional ellipses and circles that were centered around where the X and Y axes crossed at 0, also known as the origin: “It’s centered ‘round the ‘gin.” When we studied imaginary numbers, which are based on the square root of -1, which is written mathematically as ‘i’: “If Mom-Mom sends you to the store to get 2i bread, what do you bring home?” All said with a wicked grin on his face. He was quirky and goofy, and 45 years later I still remember those classes. Boss Halstead just turned 85 last November. I need to track down an address for him…
I enjoyed reading everyone's stories about people who had made a difference in their lives. For me, it was my 9th grade English teacher who introduced me to honest-to-God literature.