(no subject)
Ever since Dud posted that entry about her most inspirational teachers, I've been thinking about my own list. I'm grateful to be very lucky when it comes to teachers. I've either liked or loved about 90% of the teachers I've had since kindergarten. And I realized that I couldn't even fit them all into one list. There are teachers that have inspired me, teachers that I've just liked because they're good people as well as good teachers, and teachers who I consider friends. And there are nonacademic teachers and there are teachers that had a great impact on me that I didn't end up liking. Then there are teachers who taught classes that really inspired me/had an impact on me, but I can't exactly chalk that up to them. So here is my attempt to list all of them, in chronological order:
1. Ms. Lewis (1st grade): I don't remember a single thing I did in first grade, but that was the year my mom died and she was just a really great person to have when that happened. All I remember is she would always try to help me through my shyness and usually would just let me write stories and make books (and I'm pretty sure she let me get more of them laminated than I was actually supposed to). And she bought me a stuffed bunny.
2. Ms. Van Damm (3rd and some of 4th grade): She was one of the first really nurturing teachers she had. Her style of teaching matched my style of learning so much and I remember just loving to go to school everyday. I can pinpoint the moment I learned so many things back to her classes, from learning how to do research to grammar rules to discussing literature (via The Phantom Tollbooth and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. This was also when I learned the word "melancholy," which was my first big vocab word and I used it all the time.) She was the first person I showed my longer stories to and we started The Literary Society together, which was my first experience with writing workshops. She also would always give me these resources for where to get published and I think bought me a subscription to whatever the older version of Grasshopper was. I think that's when I first started to think about actually making a career out of writing. When she got sick halfway through 4th grade, it had a huge effect on me. She wrote me a few letters and I found out later that she told her replacement to keep a lookout for me.
3. Dorothy Ross (first 2 years of Hebrew School): It's funny remembering how in the first few weeks of Hebrew School I wanted to drop out because I hated dorothy ross so much. Then she ended up being one of the most inspirational people in my life. I wrote a whole story of this, so I won't go into it here, but she was the inspiration for so much of who I am today with writing and empowerment and an outlook on life.
4. Deanna: I don't remember when exactly Deanna was my dance teacher but, even though I only had her for a year, I credit her for introducing me to the style of dancing I love the most and wish I could get back into. She was my last great dance teacher at the New Paltz School of Ballet, but her and Vicky and the one in between the two whose name I can't remember had these classes where I remember just being so freaking happy and in love with every second of them.
5. now a huge leap to Ms. Law (APES, 11th grade): It's kind of sad that I can't think of any teachers I had during middle school that would make this list. I do remember Ms. Graves and Ms. Sunshine being very helpful during the whole Sue era though. Anyway, besides being a completely amazing person, Ms. Law was responsible for sparking my interest in global women's rights/issues. I like to think that I was at least a little aware before junior year, but I just remember that being the jumping off point to being really interested in and becoming aware of the world around me.
6. Ms. Diana and Ms. St. John (English, 10th grade and AP Language): I feel a little bad putting these two together, but they have pretty much the same explanation; that they nurtured my writing and I consider them friends, still.
7. Miz Patty (AP Lit): Technically she's the same story as Diana and SJ, but she just needs her own spot. Like Dud said, she was the first person who actually challenged me in an English class and was like "yeah, you're good but you can also be better," and it was a good chance of pace to get something besides blind praise (which sounds so cocky but, hey, that's the way it was). I consider her one of my role models and a friend. I was at her wedding and am watching her wee tot grow (and have so many pictures of her in my phone because she sends them to me on the regular)and sometimes we just hang out. And, this is going to sound so silly, but her and Miz SJ and D are always cheering me on. And that is always nice to hear.
8. Sarah Street: Ok, so I have some mixed feelings about Sarah, seeing as how she went crazy and ruined one of the best things that ever happened to me while simultaneously ending my dance career. That being said, she was a great dance teacher. In the nine months of studying with her, my technique improved at a faster rate than in the previous 12 years of training. Not to mention my confidence in my dancing skyrocketed and I even started choreographing, which was something i never thought I'd do outside of my own head and living room. I had always thought that dancing was just something I did because it felt good to do, but she was the first person in awhile to say "no, actually, you're really talented" (hip hop, while fun, wasn't exactly my forte). I hadn't had classical training in four or five years when I started with her, but literally an hour after we met she was refreshing, fixing, improving and teaching me my technique and by the time I watched myself dancing a few months later i couldn't even believe that was me. And she fixed a fix year health problem just by focusing on alignment. I have so much resentment towards her, but that only comes from feeling betrayed by someone I respected and cared for so much, for those reasons. I really miss Sarah, at least pre-breakdown Sarah.
9.Morgan Baker (Nonfiction, last semester): I've started referring to her as "my college Miz Patty." She doesn't have anywhere near the same personality (she's actually a lot like ms.st.john) but we kind of unexpectedly became friends. Over the summer she wrote me back and forth about my dad when he was in the hospital, which I thought was just beyond nice. And she's agreed to sort of mentor me through the process of writing this memoiry project I've been working on for a few months.
10. other notable quotables: mrs.mackinnon(AP politics classes), ms.cook (drawing and painting/advanced drawing and painting), tulasi srinivas(gender in a global perspective), bill beutler(magazine writing/advanced magazine writing), jasmine beach-ferrara (american women writers), alden jones (advanced fiction), kathleen carr(mag publishing).
1. Ms. Lewis (1st grade): I don't remember a single thing I did in first grade, but that was the year my mom died and she was just a really great person to have when that happened. All I remember is she would always try to help me through my shyness and usually would just let me write stories and make books (and I'm pretty sure she let me get more of them laminated than I was actually supposed to). And she bought me a stuffed bunny.
2. Ms. Van Damm (3rd and some of 4th grade): She was one of the first really nurturing teachers she had. Her style of teaching matched my style of learning so much and I remember just loving to go to school everyday. I can pinpoint the moment I learned so many things back to her classes, from learning how to do research to grammar rules to discussing literature (via The Phantom Tollbooth and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. This was also when I learned the word "melancholy," which was my first big vocab word and I used it all the time.) She was the first person I showed my longer stories to and we started The Literary Society together, which was my first experience with writing workshops. She also would always give me these resources for where to get published and I think bought me a subscription to whatever the older version of Grasshopper was. I think that's when I first started to think about actually making a career out of writing. When she got sick halfway through 4th grade, it had a huge effect on me. She wrote me a few letters and I found out later that she told her replacement to keep a lookout for me.
3. Dorothy Ross (first 2 years of Hebrew School): It's funny remembering how in the first few weeks of Hebrew School I wanted to drop out because I hated dorothy ross so much. Then she ended up being one of the most inspirational people in my life. I wrote a whole story of this, so I won't go into it here, but she was the inspiration for so much of who I am today with writing and empowerment and an outlook on life.
4. Deanna: I don't remember when exactly Deanna was my dance teacher but, even though I only had her for a year, I credit her for introducing me to the style of dancing I love the most and wish I could get back into. She was my last great dance teacher at the New Paltz School of Ballet, but her and Vicky and the one in between the two whose name I can't remember had these classes where I remember just being so freaking happy and in love with every second of them.
5. now a huge leap to Ms. Law (APES, 11th grade): It's kind of sad that I can't think of any teachers I had during middle school that would make this list. I do remember Ms. Graves and Ms. Sunshine being very helpful during the whole Sue era though. Anyway, besides being a completely amazing person, Ms. Law was responsible for sparking my interest in global women's rights/issues. I like to think that I was at least a little aware before junior year, but I just remember that being the jumping off point to being really interested in and becoming aware of the world around me.
6. Ms. Diana and Ms. St. John (English, 10th grade and AP Language): I feel a little bad putting these two together, but they have pretty much the same explanation; that they nurtured my writing and I consider them friends, still.
7. Miz Patty (AP Lit): Technically she's the same story as Diana and SJ, but she just needs her own spot. Like Dud said, she was the first person who actually challenged me in an English class and was like "yeah, you're good but you can also be better," and it was a good chance of pace to get something besides blind praise (which sounds so cocky but, hey, that's the way it was). I consider her one of my role models and a friend. I was at her wedding and am watching her wee tot grow (and have so many pictures of her in my phone because she sends them to me on the regular)and sometimes we just hang out. And, this is going to sound so silly, but her and Miz SJ and D are always cheering me on. And that is always nice to hear.
8. Sarah Street: Ok, so I have some mixed feelings about Sarah, seeing as how she went crazy and ruined one of the best things that ever happened to me while simultaneously ending my dance career. That being said, she was a great dance teacher. In the nine months of studying with her, my technique improved at a faster rate than in the previous 12 years of training. Not to mention my confidence in my dancing skyrocketed and I even started choreographing, which was something i never thought I'd do outside of my own head and living room. I had always thought that dancing was just something I did because it felt good to do, but she was the first person in awhile to say "no, actually, you're really talented" (hip hop, while fun, wasn't exactly my forte). I hadn't had classical training in four or five years when I started with her, but literally an hour after we met she was refreshing, fixing, improving and teaching me my technique and by the time I watched myself dancing a few months later i couldn't even believe that was me. And she fixed a fix year health problem just by focusing on alignment. I have so much resentment towards her, but that only comes from feeling betrayed by someone I respected and cared for so much, for those reasons. I really miss Sarah, at least pre-breakdown Sarah.
9.Morgan Baker (Nonfiction, last semester): I've started referring to her as "my college Miz Patty." She doesn't have anywhere near the same personality (she's actually a lot like ms.st.john) but we kind of unexpectedly became friends. Over the summer she wrote me back and forth about my dad when he was in the hospital, which I thought was just beyond nice. And she's agreed to sort of mentor me through the process of writing this memoiry project I've been working on for a few months.
10. other notable quotables: mrs.mackinnon(AP politics classes), ms.cook (drawing and painting/advanced drawing and painting), tulasi srinivas(gender in a global perspective), bill beutler(magazine writing/advanced magazine writing), jasmine beach-ferrara (american women writers), alden jones (advanced fiction), kathleen carr(mag publishing).