Appreciation For Two Mentors On Teacher Appreciation Week

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Last week was the selesai week in schools for the student teachers and graduate student interns.  Elsa had a young woman named Sara Riley in her second grade class this semester who ran writing workshop.  Elsa adored Miss Riley, and upon Sara’s departure, Elsa wrote her a very sweet letter.

Here’s an excerpt: 

“Dear Ms. Riley, Thank You For Everything You’ve Done For Our Class And Our teachers. … You Are One Of Those People Evreybody Can Trust All The Time—A Sweet, Wise Person (And Beatiful !) … Sara Riley A Beatiful Wonderful Name Sara Riley And I Don’t Want To Let Go Of That Lovley Name And Person. I Don’t Want IT To Be Tomarow But That’s The Way it’s gonna go So You Can Lead Your Life and We’ll All Be Crying To This One Crazy, Beatiful, Lovley, Sweet, Funny, Loving Lady Named Sara Riley. … Thank You The Most For Being My And Our Teacher.
Bye-Bye
Love Your Sweet Student
Elsa Nocton
P.S. … I Wrote This All Bye Myself In One Night No Help!!”

I didn’t get any notes quite that effusive, but I did get two thank you cards—complete with $10 gift cards for coffee!—from two former students, one who will be in the Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates beginning this summer and one who will be entering a graduate aktivitas to become a school counselor.

Isn’t it amazing how a simple thank you and a $10 gift card can make your whole week?

Since this is both Teacher Appreciation Week and the selesai week of the college semester, I have been thinking about some good friends and colleagues who are retiring this year.  I’d like to mention two who have been especially good friends and colleagues to me.

One is Lynn Bloom.  Anyone who has attended a Summer Institute at UConn knows Lynn.  She was the first person to hold the position of Endowed Aetna Chair, starting in the late 80s.  Lynn spends a day with the teachers every summer, where she shares her writing and her life story, which is always inspirational to the many women who attend the SI.  And often teachers have subsequently enrolled as non-degree students in Lynn’s Creative Nonfiction classes. 

Besides being a tireless champion of the writing project, Lynn has been a true mentor and mensch to me professionally and personally.  She introduced me to Patrick Sullivan of Manchester Community College, and this meeting resulted in my first published book chapter.  I will likely have another chapter published in a book edited by Patrick this coming academic year.  Lynn also introduced Amy and me to some friends of hers who were retiring and looking to rent their home. Ultimately, after a couple of years, we bought that house, which is where we live now.

The other good friend and colleague of mine who is retiring this year is Ken Giella, who for many years has taught art and been the art department head at RHAM High School, where I began my teaching career.  When I started at RHAM in 1995, I was advising both the school newspaper and the literary magazine.  I had many long days and late nights at RHAM (not helped by the fact that I was commuting between Simsbury and Hebron!).  Ken was running the yearbook, so often he and I and the janitors were the only adults still in the building at 5 and 6 and 7 in the evening.  Ken always gave me good advice and made me laugh. 

Whenever I would get frustrated with the students for skipping meetings or missing deadlines, Ken would say, “The adults are worse!”  And he was right, which I learned very clearly the year I chaired a NEASC Mission Statement Committee.  God how the teachers on that committee would complain about having to write a paragraph.  And who didn’t have anything to write with or write on.  One teacher submitted a paragraph to me written in red pencil on a torn-off scrap of newspaper.

Like Lynn, Ken was also a real friend and mentor.  He owned a house built in 1720 and had spent a couple decades restoring it.  When Amy and I bought our first house, built in 1835, Ken spent many hours helping me do repairs, typically for no more payment than a great dinner and a couple beers.  I learned much from Ken about teaching, about human nature (that of teachers and students alike), and about home ownership.

Both Lynn and Ken always knew and showed by example that good teaching had everything to do with human relationships, and I’m thankful both have been friends and mentors to me.


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