Treasures from Formers

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.

There are some really great books on there - have you read any of them? I haven't read A Little Princess or White Fang, but I can vouch for the rest of them! (And I do plan to read those two books soon!)

Next up?  A post about how I had to fight to keep using The Children's Classics Program with my students and the ally who made it happen.

Stay 'tooned!

Graduations

Fair warning - this is a long post. Just remember that my blog also functions as my journal.

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School lets out for summer today, and the graduation fun begins!

High School Graduation

My former students are graduating from the same high school I graduated from. (Look closely - see the horse on the top of the shield?)

My class was a two year class, and when you are together that long, you become very close. (I cried buckets when they moved on the middle school!) Every year some kiddos chose to stay in touch and so I have received several  graduation  announcements and party invitations.

Garrett, a two instrument musician, who now towers well above me at 6'4".

Several years after he left my class, he invited me to attend his Bar Mitzvah at the local synagogue, Temple Israel. 

It was a beautiful ceremony and an honor to be there. That Torah that Garrett is holding was hidden from the Nazis during World War II and then smuggled out of Europe and brought to the United States, landing here in West Lafayette. It is brought out for special occasions like this one.

Ryan, a kind and caring girl in 4th and 5th grade and still today.

Ryan attended my church so not only did she see her teacher on weekdays, she had to see me on Sundays, too! Some kids wouldn't like that, but she never seemed to mind.

Sophia, a horse lover like me. We both enjoyed that connection.

Sophia and her partners with a STEM project - designing a watershed to stop erosion.

Jadyn, an athlete then and now.

Cooking marshmallows in the solar oven she and Gracie designed and showing their reading buddy how it worked. (It did, too. We made s'mores with those ovens the kids designed!)

Carter, an awesome baseball player. I let him have the first turn at our end of the year piñata, and he whacked it so hard with the bat that it launched across the schoolyard scattering candy as it flew! (And with screaming and laughing kids chasing it!)

Carter and Greyson showing me that their solar oven had worked and that their s'mores were delicious.

Carter also invited me to his Eagle Court of Honor. 

University Graduations

I also have students graduating from college.

MacKenna was a horsey girl who invited me out to watch her ride when she was in my classroom. Her older brother Aiden (who is in medical school now) was also in my class. Both of them were great kids to teach.

MacKenna as a fourth grader visiting Abby along with Mya, another horsey girl in my class.

And later in high school riding her own horse in a competition.

Sophie just graduated from Emory University and is headed to Africa to do mission work. Her brother Ben (behind her) was also in my class.

They were part of a group of formers who surprised me with a party when I retired.

Sophie (red dress) caroling to Mr. Scrooge (Beach Son Kyle) at our "Happy New Year, Mr. Scrooge" party.

Katy, who we all called "Katybug," just graduated from Butler University.

Sophie, me, and Katybug at Sophie's high school graduation party.

Albert. One of the deepest thinkers I have ever taught.

A very spiritual young man, he played The Most Reverend Albert Moss, Archbishop of Canterbury, who came to congratulate Mr. Scrooge on his change to a kinder, gentler man. Born during the attacks on September 11, 2001, I think of him every year on that day. I remind myself that not everything that happened that terrible day was awful.

Jessica. One of seven children, she loved that I had a big family, too, and understood what that could be like.

Jessica dropped in to see me on the last day of school a year or so before I retired.

Lilly.  A bright light in the class every single day.

Lilly is now a meteorologist and sometimes I see her giving the weather report when I watch the local news !

Jessica, Sophie, Katybug, Albert, and Lilly at the surprise retirement party they organized for me in 2018.

Well done, formers and best of luck as you move on to the next phase in your lives! I am so very proud of you.

Love,

Mrs. I.

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Second post of the day is coming if I can manage it. Hawkeye Sarah and her family are coming in for a visit today and I have a doctor's appointment this morning. We shall see but...

Stay 'tooned!