The Incredible Events in the Life of a Teacher

~ wordancerblog

I love teaching.  I think I was born to teach.  I have been in education for 45 years, and I can’t seem to think of a day when I won’t be teaching.  Even if I no longer work at a school, I know I will find a way to teach, a way to connect with children.  Connection is equivalent to teaching for me.  Yes, I care about reading and writing and all the components of a well-read education, but foremost I care about the relationships I developed with children so that they can be open to possibility.  Being open to possibility is the key to life-long learning, and life-long learning, I believe, is the key to happiness.  It gives one purpose, and a sense of purpose is what keeps us humans strong and resilient.

In my work as a teacher, I have been a purveyor of books.  I love reading aloud to children and sharing ideas that will create new creative space for them.  I love handing older students novels that I know will guide and encourage them.  I have done this for hundreds of children over the years, just like my 5th grade teacher, Lorraine Skovron, had done for me.

Lorraine gave me the greatest gift at ten-years-old.  A slow and reluctant reader,  Lorraine kept putting books in my hand until one stuck and took hold and didn’t let go.  That book was Misty of Chincoteague.  I read that book all day one Saturday locked in my bathroom, laying in my bathtub padded with pillows and comforters.  I couldn’t stop reading it.  And when I was done, I was a reader.  I went back to Mrs. Skovron and told her that I finished the book.  She smiled and handed me another horse story.  I must have read every horse story written that year, 1966 – the year I became a reader.

When I began teaching, I kept Lorraine in my teacher heart.  I knew her connection to me and her connection to books made a difference in my life.  It turned my life around.  And that is what I intended to do for my students when I started teaching in 1979.  As a nursery schoolteacher, the stories I read were the curriculum.  I read widely and offered all kinds of knowledge to the young children in front of me.  I lived and breathed children’s books and their authors: Carle, Sendak, Brown, Van Allsburg,  Lobel, and Pinkney.  When I began teaching elementary school, I also read aloud to my class.  We went on many book adventures turning our class into a sailing vessel, and rocket ship, or a castle, as the stories dictated.

When I encountered a reluctant reader, I was eager to help.  I wanted to give that child the gift that Lorraine Skovron had given me.  Most times it worked.  If I just stayed with it long enough, I would find the key to turn that reluctant reader into an avid reader.  I just had to listen and search for stories that would spark their imaginations.

Recently, one of my fifth-grade students put a book in my hand.  She told me that I had to read it.  “It is so good!” she declared excitedly, “I NEED you to read it!”  Well, I was busy, and she could see I was reluctant, so she said, “It’s about a girl who was born without arms, and she moves to Arizona with her parents to run a western theme park.”  She knew that would get anyone’s attention, including busy me.  “What?”  I said. “I know,” she said. “It sounds crazy, but it is so good.”

I have known Melody since she was in kindergarten.  She is a sweet child who struggled to read and pay attention.  She’s a fighter, a compassionate, kind, loving fighter.  So, I knew that I was going to have to drop everything on my to-do list and read The Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling.

The day Melody put the book in my hand, I wrote a poem to express my feelings.  I knew she wanted me to read this book because there was something in the book that I needed to know.  As I read the book, I kept stopping and exclaiming, “Wow,” or “Melody!” every few pages.  Melody knew that since I was our school’s  learning support coordinator, I needed to know how students with disabilities  really feel.  Melody knew that I would get this book, that I would understand, that I might in turn put it in the hands of a child who needed it.

I finished reading The Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus.  It was indeed a wonderful, uplifting book about the power of possibility.  When I told our school librarian about how Melody had recommended the book to me, she showed me other books by the author.  As I flipped to the dust jacket to read about the author, I realized that Dusti Bowling had written a sequel – The Momentous Event in the Life of a Cactus.  I immediately ordered two copies of the book, one for me and one for Melody.  I can’t wait to put it in her hands.

Books about Disabilities

2 thoughts on “The Incredible Events in the Life of a Teacher”

  1. Your passion for reading and for book matchmaking is contagious. Now I want to read the cactus book. I’ve heard that one was truly wonderful. It sounds like we enjoyed so many of the same authors growing up. Sendak and others – all of those golden oldies, now classics. I think it is such a blessing that you are still exchanging books with students.

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  2. I will be ordering this book — what an odd and intriguing description. I love how your student got your attention, did not give up. Thank you.

    My family talked me out of becoming a teacher. My Aunt — who was high up in various endeavors in education — saved me as she said pick a subject, study that, and teach that. It is what I did…

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