World Teacher Day

Yesterday was World Teacher Day and we didn't even realize it! Oops.

I've known that I wanted to be a teacher since I was in Kindergarten. Now I am a teacher and sometimes I can't even believe it. My days are crazy and my life is full of meetings and prep work; my head is always full of things I need to get done, needs of students, and thoughts about how things are going. But then my day starts and I have a bunch of small people around me, needing and talking and laughing and learning, and all that other stuff gets put on hold. In grade 1, my students' victories are small and gradual: remembering a letter sound that they couldn't remember yesterday, remembering to get out their books without being reminded, learning routines & procedures, and making better decisions than they made yesterday. Their little light bulbs flicker all day long as they learn and remember new things and all of a sudden something big happens--like they recognize a word or the concept of "adding on" becomes natural to them.

It's pretty exciting.

So I'm going to pay tribute to some of the teachers that had an impact on my life.

Mrs. Gropp-Kindergarten

Mrs. Gropp had contagious enthusiasm. She was always wide-eyed and smiling. I was already a reader when I went to kindergarten (much to the surprise of my parents) and yet I was never bored with learning the alphabet. We sang songs and read exciting stories; we played in the sandbox and dressed in high fashion from the dress-up centre. One of my clearest memories from Kindergarten is of Mrs. Gropp standing at the front of the room, leading us in our exercises. It was the 80's, so she often wore a bright coloured, one-piece pantsuit and had big, heavy beads that she would throw over her shoulder so they didn't hit her in the face as she jumped up and down.

Another clear memory from that year was one day that Mrs. Gropp asked me to come out in the hallway. She told me that I was a great kid and very special. Then she gave me a big, scratch-&-sniff sticker of a banana that said, "I think you're Top Banana!" I remember feeling so special and singled out. She probably did the same thing with every student, but I of course felt like I was the only one.

Kindergarten was the first time I remember wanting to be a teacher. I remember watching Mrs. Gropp, thinking how much fun her job must be. It's definitely harder than I thought it would be at the time, but it's just as much fun. Thanks, Mrs. Gropp!