Happy Teachers' Day

The unofficial holiday or day of celebration today is not just Cinco de Mayo, but also National Teachers' day. 

You can take a look at this website to find all the unofficial holidays that you might find intriguing. 
http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/

Just thinking about the many teachers that have helped me along the way and are still assisting me to get where I am going.

My best friend is a retired teacher.  I do not discriminate age when it comes to friendship.  But going back to my best friend, she is very supportive in a lot of my roller coaster happenings in life. 

I can think of a handful of teachers that inspired and pushed me.

My fifth grade teacher, whose name eludes me right now.  Really, she was important, but I did not like being in her class at first.  All my friends went to another class and I was separated from everyone I knew.  But I eventually enjoyed her class.  She was very creative.  I learned to sew in her class.  I got my first writing award in her class.  I still remember the artworks we did in the class.  She would read to us in a big group, even at our ages. 

My sixth grade teacher-Mr. McPherson.  Another situation where I left in the middle of school to go to another class with people I did not know.  He was very sensitive to my needs although I was not very giving at first.  I enjoyed all the writings we did.  It was my first experience with filming, although I believe my film group fell apart and we never did do a film.  He was really the only thing in class I enjoyed.  The students were mean to me because I was so different, but not sure how.  I played all the games and sports well.  Not sure why, but the past is past.  I still went back to visit that teacher after I finished his class, until I moved out of the area.  He would play dodge ball with us and he would not let us off easy.  He had an arm that would take anyone out.  He was hilarious, cracking silly jokes, and caring about what I was doing after his class. 

My English instructor at community college-Here was a very intense confrontation.  After a few good years in elementary school, I learned to hate writing in class during middle and high school.  Hated it, hated it, hated it!  I took all my general education classes and purposely took English as the final general ed class before moving on to other non-general ed classes.  I was not looking forward to this class.

This is what I remember:
I remember one class ending and either being very sleepy from working overnight (I was working night shifts at that time and going to school in the day).  I cannot remember if I actually turned my assignment or if I was making an excuse to turn it in later.  I was not doing well in the class.  But the instructor confronted me in class after all the students left and asked me probing questions about what I was doing in class.  I cannot remember the conversation, but I remember the feelings that hit me, but then, again, it could have been lack of sleep.  I do remember him telling me something to the effect that he knew I could do better and then proceeded to show me how I could improve my work.  I took his advice and completed the class with an A, which was a surprise to me.  He really turned me around by showing me that he cared enough about me as a student, and that he was not going to let me fail his class when he knew I had more potential.  I cannot remember if his name was Christian or Mr. Christian.  I do know that my youngest sister worked very close to him in school, since her major is in English.  I do not think he remembers me, as I asked her once about him.

There are many teachers, not just school teachers, but people who train at work, teach at social events and other congregational events, who have inspired me and helped me along the way.

I salute them all today!