Thirty One--My Kids' Teachers

I want to digress a little bit on this post and talk about some of the wonderful people I worked with at Patterson.  I don't want to forget anyone and after I am done with these 43 posts, I am going to go back and make sure I cover as many people as possible.   My kids both went to Patterson while I was teaching there.  Kerri went from kindergarten through sixth grades and Patrick went for kindergarten and first grades.

They were blessed with such wonderful elementary teachers who truly cared about them.   And the greatest part of this is that they were all dear friends of mine, too.

Kerri was fortunate to have Ellen Widmer, Dotty Hall, Betty Lehan, Mary Larson, and Nancy Roberts.   Ellen and Betty have both died.    Ellen was one of my absolute best friends and I miss her to this day!

Patrick had Nancy Proffitt and Jane Campbell.   He later had Judy Cocke, Ellen Widmer, Bill McClelland and Kim Dillon when he moved from Patterson to Houston and then sixth grade at Gilbert El. Sadly, Jane also has died.  Patrick also benefited from our wonderful PE teacher, Kathy Kemp, who taught him to jump rope and had a jump rope team.

So not only was I able to work with incredible people, I got to experience them as a parent, too.   That was truly a blessing!

Thirty Two Days--The Underground Bulletin

I mentioned my lack of artistic and musical ability, but I am a fairly descent writer.   I have always liked to write and I especially like to write about humorous events.  Our wonderful principal, Leona, always published a bulletin with information, etc., in it for our teachers and staff.

So I decided to be creative and start writing an "Underground Bulletin."   I would write about funny things that were happening with teachers and staff at school.  Of course, I embellished a lot of the stories and I used a lot of alliteration.  It was so fun to do and I think the staff really enjoyed it and even being featured in it.   Leona even would give me information about things that were happening so that I could write about it.    I still have many of the copies of it.  I just need to figure out where they are.  Down the road I hope to publish a few of the "articles".

At that time, there were no computers and I had to use dittos to publish the underground bulletin.   What a pain it was!   It is hard to imagine in this day and age of computers, how difficult it was to write and make copies of things!!!!

 A few years before I started doing this, a friend from the Junior High started a District one and it was called "Que Pasa."  I never had anything to do with it, although I was a featured story once.   However to this day, Wally Delecki still "blames" me for it.  I have told him over and over again it wasn't me, but to no avail.

That was my first experience writing about humor.   And that is why I have enjoyed my blog through the years!!!

Thirty Three-Patterson Tales Continued

I have never been known for my musical or artistic abilities, but I have two stories to share about "art" from my days at Patterson.

The first one was that our PTSO sponsored an Art Show and each class was to display their art projects for this fair.  So I was trying to be very creative and figure out what to do since I didn't do a lot of art with my kids because of my "lack of ability" in that particular area.   Gilbert at that time had a lot of farming and so one of my parents offered to bring their tractor and trailer filled with hay bales.   The  parents helped display all of my kids art work on the hay bales and it looked great.    Our class received a special award for "Best Display of Art Work" and even got a trophy.   Did I take a lot of flack for that from the other teachers!!!  Of course, this was all in jest but they knew my limited art ability!

The next one is one of my most favorite stories.   I didn't like to do bulletin boards and my wonderful IA, Pat O., always did them for me.   Each month a teacher was assigned the big bulletin board in the office to decorate.  My month was January so I asked the teacher who had December to please leave the white paper up and the border.   Then I cut out the letters that said:  "FIND THE HIDDEN PICTURES IN THE BLIZZARD!"   That was it.  The best part is that our school secretary said parents would actually sit there and try to find pictures while they were waiting.  I also remember Leona (laughing) telling me that she thought I might only leave it up a couple of days, and not the whole month!!

Needless to say, I NEVER had to do another office bulletin board in all of the years that I was there!

Thirty Four--Patterson Continued

My second year at Patterson, I moved from second to third grade and several of my students stayed with me.  I absolutely loved teaching third grade!  I had the best students and such incredible family support.   I worked with wonderful people.   At some point, I want to mention them, but I am afraid I may forget a few names and I wouldn't want to leave anyone out.

My instructional assistant at Patterson was Pat Ofenloch.   We hit it off immediately and I believe that Pat was instrumental in me becoming a good teacher.   She was an integral part of my classroom community and was always there for me.  She died a few years ago  and I wrote about her when that happened.   She was with me until she retired (from Patterson, to Houston, to Gilbert El).

That year I decided that I would like to take my students on an overnight field trip to Bisbee and Tombstone.  I wanted them to learn the history of early Arizona as well as the science of rocks and minerals.   Leona was very supportive of this, as were the parents.   An elementary teacher had not asked to go on an overnight field trip before, so I had to go before the Governing Board and ask permission.  I was asked many questions about why I wanted to do this and I answered each question.   The Board approved it and there began 10 years of an incredible trip with my classes.

The first year's trip was the end of April.  I will never forget that first trip (or any for that matter).   We spent the first day in Tombstone.   The kids saw the Historama, toured the OK Corral and the Courthouse.   We then drove to Bisbee and spent the night at the Bisbee High School Gym.   Pat O. was with me on every trip and was such a great help.

I had a student for two years by the name of Wendy Aaby.   Wendy's mom told me I could write about her when I contacted her a few days ago.  Wendy was paralyzed from the waist down and her mom trusted me enough to allow her to go on that field trip.   Our school nurse, Mary Sisung, went with us to help out with Wendy (her mom let her go on her own).  I also had the privilege of having a student by the name of Charissa Chafey who was absolutely amazing with Wendy.  She was truly her protector and showed incredible empathy.   At the time, there wasn't much research out there about building classroom community.  I did it without even realizing it because I had amazing students and families. Wendy passed away a few years ago.  I wasn't able to get to her funeral as I was here in Douglas.   Her mom and I keep in touch.   I feel that having Wendy for a student was a huge blessing and I am grateful to her mom for the trust that she put in me!

I remember that it snowed the first day and the kids were so excited to see the snow.  The trip went very well and the kids and adults had a wonderful time and learned a lot.  It was probably one of the best things I ever did as an educator and it evolved into something that lasts even today.   I will write more about that in later posts.  I loved being able to share my roots with my students and their families!

Thirty-Five--Patterson Days!

I was so fortunate that when I got back to Gilbert, I was able to teach at Patterson Elementary School.  I had opened up the year I was in Germany.  My dear friend and mentor, Leona Shreve, was the principal and it was so amazing to be able to work for her.   This was the start of a ten year adventure as a regular classroom teacher.   

I started out the first few days of the year teaching fourth grade.   Gilbert's growth was slow at that time, but new subdivisions were being built.  There weren't enough students for three fourth grades so Leona asked if anyone wanted to move to second grade.  I volunteered to do so.  At the time, I was pregnant with Patrick and primary students got out at 2:00 p.m. and intermediate at 3:00 p.m.   So it was a bit easier for me to have that extra hour.   I only had 11 or 12 children to start the year, but by the end of the school year, I had a full class!

I liked teaching second grade, but knew that I preferred children just a little bit older.   

The Patterson years were amazing!  Leona Shreve was an incredible principal and mentor to me throughout my career.   It was such a blessing that I was able to go to Patterson after that year's leave for many reasons.   I will share some Patterson stories over the next several days.

Thirty-Six More Days--Teaching in Germany

For the past seven posts, I have mostly written about my days teaching special education.  I was able to take a year's leave of absence from Gilbert for the 77-78 school year.   My ex was stationed in Germany in the Army and Kerri and I went over to join him.     At that time (and it still may be the same) the majority of teachers on Army bases were Department of Defense employees who went to different countries to teach.   I applied for a job and the day before school started, I got a call to sub for a teacher who was pregnant.   She was also one of the few teachers who was the wife of a soldier and not a DOD employee.   She taught third grade.   Of course I accepted and started school the very next day without having time to prepare or anything.

The school was at the Army Base in Kitzingen, Germany which is south of Frankfort.   I had only taught special ed so it took a bit to get use to a full class of 30 third graders.  I absolutely loved it!  I had a great class and worked with some wonderful teachers.  

The teacher I was subbing for planned to be out for six weeks.   As the time came for her to be back, I was really feeling down because I was so enjoying it.   I had prepared the kids for her return and then all of a sudden she decided to not come back so I was able to teach the entire year.    

Having lived and gone to school in Douglas and then spending six years in Gilbert, I had worked with a lot of the same people and had many students for more than one year  One of the most interesting things that happened as that during the school year, kids came and went depending on their parents' deployment.  So even though I had 30 kids most of the year, I probably had a total of 45 kids because of  the transfers.   And what I found really interesting is that the kids were so use to this kind of change.   A new student would come in and they would welcome the child and then go about their business.   The same thing would happen when a child left--they said good-bye and that was it.   They were already a part of the military life at that young age!

One particularly memorable event happened one day towards the end of the year.   I had booked the Officer's Club for a class picnic and had everything planned for the kids to barbecue and play games.    We were in the middle of playing a game when an officer came out and asked if the kids could be a bit quieter.  His reason was that they were have a "very important" NATO meeting with General  Patton (General George Patton's son).   I told him very nicely that I would try to keep them quiet, but I couldn't promise.   He went back in and a bit later came out again and asked.   Right behind him was General Patton and he told me that the kids weren't bothering anyone and that they should enjoy themselves!!!!   I liked that.

It was a great year and I knew that when I went back to Gilbert I was going to ask to teach a regular grade level.   If I had not had that opportunity, I would have continued to teach SPED because I liked that, too.

I felt so fortunate to be able to have this experience!  It was a great year.  Although I loved working there, I was glad to get back to Gilbert.   

Thirty-Seven Days--"The Dirty Daisies"

Still remembering my first years of teaching special education.   As I have said, I was at both Gilbert Elementary and Gilbert Junior during that time.   I had kids from fourth through eighth grades--sometimes self-contained some times just for reading or math.   I worked with some great people who became such good friends.   

The other day, Sue Dunning asked if I remembered the Dirty Daisies---Remember them, I was a "founding flower" of the Dirty Daisy Society!!   It was such a fun time!    One day, several of us heard that some of the male teachers belonged to a secret society called The Red, Red Rose.    It was supposedly a national association and they were not allowed to talk about it.   Well you can imagine how we took off with this information.

Dawn Hughes, Martha Wallace, Kay Benjamin and I decided to start Gilbert's answer to the Red, Red Rose Society, aka as the Dirty Daisies.  So the Dirty Daisy Society was started.  We had bylaws, a slogan and even a t-shirt.  Our slogan was "some seeds sow weeds!"    We expanded our membership and you had to be "voted" in to join.   I can tell you that any female teacher who wanted to be a Dirty Daisy could be one--we weren't that selective.

Later after I became an administrator, several of my admin buddies became "Dirty Daisies"--Connie, Nikki, Jill, Sherryl--just to name a few.  One of the funniest times was when we were at an administrators' picnic and our wonderful Supt, Wally, burned one of our t-shirts!!!

What great times we had during those years!!!