This Teacher Appreciation Week, I want to talk about a few of my favorite teachers.
I had the great fortune of having some terrific teachers. Believe it or not, I wasn’t the easiest kid to have in a classroom. I was the kid who was ALWAYS talking. And doing cartwheels in the hallway. And singing. And acting out my classwork. And making up stories of how my parents locked me in a closet and that’s why I didn’t do my homework….
I wasn’t the smartest or the hardest working or the most obedient student. So a few of my teachers REALLY got annoyed with me. Being a teacher myself, now, I totally understand why! But there were some who saw past the mess that was me. I’d like to tell you about a few of them:
Miss Dean (4th grade): Miss Dean was so fun. She sang with us, she let me show her my dance moves, and she came to see plays I was in. She didn’t let me get too crazy, but she did understand that, occasionally, I just needed to do a handstand. She found my creativity endearing, not annoying. She made school fun, and I loved going to her class. Because I was at a Christian school that year, she also taught me about Jesus. That was the year before I came to accept Christ as my Savior, and I know she planted many of the seeds that came to fruition in later years.
Mr. Jones and Mrs. Mizelle (11th and 12th grades): These two are together because they were the Choir and Drama teachers, respectively. I spent A LOT of time with them – in class and out of class. I’ll never forget six of us going to Mrs. Mizelle’s on a Saturday to practice choreography for our junior play; or the corny jokes Mr. Jones on the way to and from competitions. They spent a lot of time and a lot of energy on us. Because academics were not my thing in high school, it was these two who made high school bearable for me. Their classrooms were my “happy places”.
Coach Elkins (11th and 12th grades): In the ultimate form of irony, I was my high school’s FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) President. I have not one athletic bone in my body (proved once again just yesterday when I literally tripped over my own feet while playing kickball). But Coach Elkins let me in the group, anyway. She saw in me something I didn’t know I had: leadership ability. I know I had to have driven her up the wall in a hundred different ways, but she never gave up on me, and she constantly challenged me to live for Jesus every day.
What about YOU? Who were your favorite teachers and why?
