Teachers Pay Teachers just finished a sale with the theme of Teachers are Heroes. Several bloggers that I follow talked about their Teacher Heroes and it got me thinking that I couldn’t remember a lot of my teachers from my childhood – too long ago I guess. But there were a few – Mrs. Beasley, my first grade teacher who taught us how to count to 10 in Spanish – which I can still do. My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Kampouris who took a small group of students to a science fair and fed us M&M’s on our way there. Don’t remember anything about the science fair, just the M&M’s and the fact that my mother really spoke highly of her. I don’t remember learning to read or how I solved a math problem. As I said, I couldn’t tell you what we did at the science fair. What I do remember is such a little thing that the teacher did that was not on the lesson plan or in the state standards – just the thoughtfulness of doing something nice and sweet.
Today, I came across a note from a very sweet lady who used to be the Assistant Principal at my school. She retired 9 years ago and is enjoying grandchildren and life. The note was sent to me at my school after she retired. She had run into me and a colleague at lunch one day right before the start of a the school year. We had decided to move up to 2nd grade and co-teach. We were looking forward to our new adventure and she noticed it. The following week she sent a beautiful inspirational note to each of us at school. She didn’t send an email or a text. She sent a precious handwritten note that I still have.
Thoughtfulness. Such a wonderful trait for an educator. More important than content knowledge or a test specification and definitely not on a standardized test. These are my teacher heroes – Mrs. Beasley, Mrs. Kamporis, and Mrs. Nancy Apgar. Thank you for the reminder of what’s important. You were and are my teacher heroes! Who was your teacher hero?
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