The Five

With teacher appreciation week coming up, I thought it fitting to give a shout out to some of my favorite teachers from my time as a student. Each day of Teacher Appreciation Week, I will be giving a shout out on Twitter to those teachers that had the greatest impact on my life, but I will combine all those stories and shout outs in this post. It was hard to narrow down my list as I feel that all educators are heroes, but these are the five that influenced me the most!

Mr. Reed - Grade 5: I've talked about Mr. Reed before and what a hero he was to me growing up. You can read the whole story in Do you Remember Your Favorite Teacher? In short, Mr. Reed was a mentor, a role model, and even a father figure to me. He helped support me and my family when my father was ill and he spent countless hours outside of the classroom working with students at the school musicals, building sets, and directing one or two shows a year. He lived for helping students and the outpouring from former students after his passing was a testament to his impact.

 Mr. Hankwitz - Grade 7: Mr. Hankwitz made learning fun in his classroom. He was the teacher that took our grade on an archaeological dig to find artifacts and create presentations on what we found and how people lived in the past. Amazingly, all the artifacts that we found were in the back yard of our school (It wasn't until years later, that I realized he had painstakingly planted all the artifacts that we would later dig up). It was what Dave Burgess would refer to as a LCL (Life Changing Lesson).

Mr. Horowski - Grade 8: Mr. H was the first "cool" teacher I had in middle school. Not much impressed me in 8th grade and to be honest, I had a pretty poor attitude about school at the time. Early in the year, Mr. H came into school wearing a Rush concert shirt.  We were amazed! We were even more amazed when we found out that he was a drummer in a band. He instantly became the idol of half our class. I'm not sure how much student performance went up that year, but I know that student attitude (at least mine) improved greatly, due to Mr. Horowski!

 Mr. Genter - Grades 11 and 12: I'd always liked history, so it was no surprise that I liked Mr. Genter's history courses. However, he didn't just expose me to history, he helped me make connections and realize my love for learning. It was in his classroom that I first thought about becoming a teacher. By the end of my senior year, I had made up my mind I was going to follow in Mr. Genter's footsteps and become a high school history teacher. It wasn't until my last year in college that I decided to switch to elementary education. I don't think I ever told Mr. Genter that it was his influence that helped drive my career choice.

Coach Stibitz - Wrestling Coach: While Mr. Stibitz was a teacher, he taught for a neighboring district. However, he had an enormous impact on my life as my wrestling coach. During my high school days, wrestling was much more important to me than my schoolwork (I can't believe I'm admitting that as an educator!). In addition to coaching a long season, spending every weekend with us at tournaments, and running weight lifting programs during the summer, he also took a group of us to Iowa for a week long wrestling camp. That week has some of the best memories of my high school years. He never made us feel like kids, but like young adults and he treated us like that. I would also follow in his footsteps as I coached wrestling during my teaching years.

I feel the older I got, the more I liked school. Maybe that had to do with maturity and finding my niche, but it also had to do with the great educators that I had. In addition to "The Five" I would give honorable mention to the following teachers: Mrs. Hansen, Mr. Spangler, Mrs. Lundquist, Mr. Fatka and Mr. Winkel. All of them made learning fun and made me feel special. As an educator, I have tried to do the same for every child in my classroom or school. Thank you to the educators I had as a child and thank you to all the educators that I have had the privilege to serve with!

PEARLS OF WISDOM

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams

"Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, one teacher can change the world." - Malala Yousafzai

"I touch the future. I teach." - Christa McAuliffe 

Robin Williams at his best!

GREAT EDUCATORS TO FOLLOW ON TWITTER

Rebecca Coda

Rick Jetter

UPCOMING EVENTS

Monday, May 1: Student of the Month Assembly 9:05 am

Tuesday, May 2: Building Tour for new family 1:30 pm

                           IEP (Nadon) 3:15 pm

Wednesday, May 3: REED (Bartnick) 8:20 am

                                4th Grade Grouping Meeting 3:15 pm

                                REED (Boggs) 3:15 pm 

Thursday, May 4: PD Hours Entry in the Computer Lab 8:05-8:50 am (If needed)

                             PTA Meeting (Officer Election) 6:30 pm 

                             Jon out of building for sister's wedding

Friday, May 5: Playground Committee (Denise, Joe, Michelle, Paula) 8:00 am

                         Kindergarten Round Up planning Meeting 8:20 am

                         Paula will be in the building all morning

Monday, May 8: Celebrate Monday Assembly 9:05 am

                            Jon to "Popsicles on the Playground" at Buchanan 6:30 pm 

Tuesday, May 9: School Improvement Meeting with Paula 8:00 am

Thursday, May 11: Final CLT session 7:50-8:50 am

                               Elementary Principals Meeting 1:00 pm

                               LEA Negotiations 3:30 pm 

Friday, May 12: Jon out of building / Sandi Benson in office all day
                          F&P Data Due

                           Yearbooks go home

Monday, May 15: Celebrate Monday Assembly 9:05 am

Tuesday, May 16: Data Dives in the LMC all day

Wednesday, May 17: LEA Negotiations 3:30 pm  

                                  Arts, Beats, Eats & Books 6:00-8:00 pm
Friday, May 19: Student Growth forms submitted