This is one of those "emergency posts" that I write in advance for days just like today - I've got out of town family staying with me, an extra house-dog for the week, an oil change, a vet appointment, my cleaning lady is coming, and we're doing a pitch in dinner this evening at Curt and Vanessa's and I need to make apple crisp for dessert.
Hope to be back tomorrow - stay 'tooned!
I will stay in touch with any former student who asks me to - the answer is always yes. I never ask them as I think that that puts them into an awkward position. So, when one requests to get in contact, it is a big day for me.
Last week I received two messages from formers. Both are adults now, out of school, and living the adult life. As this blog began as my personal journal and still very much is, I am recording what they had to say. Their words held great meaning for me.
Jerrick M. sends me messages a couple of times a year. He dropped by the day I retired to thank me for being his teacher and gave me a copy of one of his (and my) favorite children's classics - The One Hundred and One Dalmatians. What a wonderful way to begin my retirement!
One of the hallmarks of my classroom was a curriculum I wrote around children's classic literature. The students had to read one classic per semester and then write a paper that they presented to the class along with a project. We also studied Greek and Latin roots, learning several a week and exploring how they influence our language to this day.
Jerrick reminded me of both of those in his most recent message.
Of course I was crying by the time I finished reading his note.
Another note with pictures came from NM. She had just given birth to her first child and sent me this sweet baby picture.
I looked at the name on the knitted blanket and paused. Had NM really done what I thought she had??
NM then sent me this text:
I still remember the project she did for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 4th or 5th grade (it was a two year class) and how, when she was in high school, NM popped into my classroom after school one day with a gift - a Barbie doll portraying Alice.
She had loved that book so much and I am pretty sure I still have that doll. I'll look, and if I do, I will send it to NM for little baby Alice.
I wrote the curriculum for the Children's Classics Project because I was tired of Captain Underpants and its ilk - I knew there were much better books out there to read. And so I used that program to introduce my students to engaging literature that had stood the test of time.
Never did I imagine getting a letter from a 25 year old man who still loved it, or a woman who enjoyed a book so much that she named her baby after it.
Talk about the power and impact of good literature.
And just in case you are interested, at the end of every school year, my current students made up a list of their favorite classics that they suggested the incoming students read. Here's one from around 2015.
