Thursday, March 29, 2018

Finish the Sentence Friday - Throwback Friday

When there is a fifth Friday in the month, the prompt for Finish the Sentence Friday - Throwback is to share something previously written. For this post I am going to share a blog post I wrote Tuesday, June 23, 2015, titled Teachers who made a difference in my life. I appreciate Kristi Campbell at Finding Ninee and Kenya G. Johnson at Sporadically Yours for hosting and co-hosting the FTSF blog hop each week. Please click the link to see what other throwback writings are being shared this week.

I know the value of reading those things we have written in the past. I remember seeing how much our children used to enjoy having me read from my journal things I'd written about them or reading to them those things they had said which I in turn wrote in my journal. 

My own maternal great great grandfather, Valentine Kimes, born in 1811 in Virginia, wrote a journal when he was in his 70's recapping events in his life. Fortunately that journal which had been written on foolscap paper had been given to a descendant, and I was blessed years later to receive a copy of it. Although many of the events in his life were very different from my own, there were things that I learned about how he handled some of the challenges in his life that were very inspiring to me. At the time he wrote his journal he even questioned its value to any future reader. I will be forever grateful for that which he took time to write. A very touching moment happened after I had read a few pages from his journal to our then three-year-old daughter one evening at bedtime. When I completed reading, I saw tears starting to stream down her cheeks. When I tried to comfort her, she choked back tears to exclaim, "When will I every see him?" I was thankful for the calming words I was able to tell her.





June 25, 2015

Teachers who made a difference in my life

The very first teacher in my life was my Mother from whom I have learned so much, including a desire to study hard in school. 

Mother, age 98,  enjoying the sunshine and flowers at the nursing home today.

School teachers can be remembered in a positive way or a negative way, and unfortunately some may only be vaguely remembered by a student. As I was driving to visit my Mother today, I thought about some of my teachers who made a difference in my life.  Certain interactions stood out and I am grateful for the things I learned from them.

As a first grader standing in the cafeteria line with a full tray of food, a boy ahead of me made a sudden move which caused me to drop my tray. The bowl of hot soup which had been on my tray was now spilled all over my socks and shoes. My teacher quickly came to my rescue and had me walk back to the classroom with her. She hurriedly removed my socks and soaked leather shoes. She cleaned off my shoes, rinsed out my socks and laid them on the radiator heater by the classroom wall. She made sure someone brought me some lunch, and then the two of us just visited while my socks dried. I have always remembered her kindness to me that day.

When I was in the third grade at a two room school, our teacher liked to crochet during the lunch time. She asked some of the girls if they would like to learn to crochet instead of going out to recess.  Several of us were interested. She gave me my first crochet lessons, and I crocheted a lot of caps that year. I always thought that was nice of her to use her precious time to teach us something that I'm sure wasn't in her contract to do so. Of course at that point in my life, I knew nothing about teacher contracts, just that she wanted to help us learn how to crochet.  While I don't crochet all the time now, I did expand on my crocheting skills as an adult.

There was a Christmas play that I was in the year I was in the fifth grade. I was kind of embarrassed when I learned I was to play the part of a Grandma in the play. All I had to do was read a poem I had written for a classroom assignment. It had been included in the script as a poem Grandma had received from someone. I think that may have been the first poem I had ever written. To this day I still dabble in writing poetry and still think that there is a season and a time for poetry in our lives.

By the time I entered seventh grade our two room school was consolidated into a larger school district, and I attended a large junior high school. If I remember right, we all had one term of art. One of the assignments we had was worth quite a bit of our grade.  We were using poster paints. Just as I was completing my painting, I got more paint on my brush than I should have and a drop splatted on the painting. I was very upset, because I thought there was no hope of getting a good grade now. My teacher came to my rescue and made a suggestion. She said that I could try to turn it into a balloon and paint a string on it. So in my finished painting of a street scene, there was a balloon floating in the air. A few weeks later, my teacher asked me if I had seen the display cabinet in the hall. At the end of class, I walked by the display cabinet and was surprised to see my painting displayed for all to see. By that experience, she taught me that things are not always as bad as they first appear, and that when life gives you lemons, turn them into lemonade!





10 comments:

  1. Such a sweet post, full of so many good reminders. That our efforts aren't mistakes when mistakes are made (such as the drop of paint turned into a balloon) and also that the good teachers make such an impact. They really do. I can remember just a few from childhood and highschool that really affected me. Their kindness and passion for learning inspires me still today. My son Tucker had a 2nd grade teacher that was pure sunshine. He's only in 3rd grade now but still walks to the other end of school on the way to the bus (not on the way) to give her a hug a couple days a week and when he made a thankful project recently, he included her. Teachers really can change lives forever. OH! I also wanted to mention how clever it was to use a season and a time when talking about your poetry! Thanks for linking up :)

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    1. Thank you Kristi. I can just picture Tucker going out of his way to give his former teacher a hug, and I can't help but think that she cherishes each one. There truly can be very lasting relationships between teachers and students. Teachers learn from the students as well.

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  2. Aw, as a former teacher I couldn't have loved this more. And even though I no longer teach, I truly hope that I made an impact on my own students way back when that they have their own memories of me. Oh and now I am also reminiscing here a bit about my own teachers from the past, too :)

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    1. Thanks. You are still young, and through your blogging and interactions with others now and in the future, in whatever realm, you will have many opportunities to continue teaching by example, as we'll as through the knowledge you attain. I'm glad this post caused you to reminisce.

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  3. Having had a few great teachers myself along the way, I really love this. It's amazing how the little things (which really aren't very "little" at all) stay with you.

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    1. Your comment of the "little things (which really aren't very 'little' at all) makes me think of how sometimes people don't recognize the impressions they have made on others until they receive a thank you card, or a phone call, etc.

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  4. Beautiful! Envisioning your painting in the cabinet hall made me warm and fuzzy (almost like goosebumps). So sweet! I've written about my 3rd grade teacher. She's the only one who stands out in my memory of going above and beyond to make a difference in my life. She would have been the teacher to teach crocheting over recess. I enjoyed the post very much!

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    1. Thank you. I remember feeling so surprised to see that painting in the cabinet, but I was so shy that to stand in the hall looking at it, among all the students walking by, was more attention than I wanted to call to myself. Looking back, I sometimes wonder if the shyness and awkwardness I felt then was that apparent to others. I suspect now that there were a lot of others students who had similar feelings at that age.

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  5. At the time he wrote his journal he even questioned its value to any future reader.

    Thank you, this line alone made the 'trip here' totally worthwhile! lol
    (ok, gotta get back to the reading. will be back)

    Published in the fifth grade!

    What an ....encouraging post. One of things that makes this virtual world so remarkable (for me) is opportunity to be allowed a glimpse into the lives of friends who were not for this medium, I would never have met. And that, imo, would be a loss.

    Thanks for the very cool post.

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  6. Lovely post. These are great reminders of how everything we do makes an impact, especially on the children around us. You never know when you can help someone turn a paint splotch into a balloon floating in the landscape. Yes to that. :)

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