13 Memorable Teachers/Classes

1. Miss Jones--First grade teacher. She hugged us as we left class. I got to order chocolate milk and she passed out the little milk bottles.

2. Miss Kimsey--Second grade teacher. I had to stay in for recess and was rattling paper in my desk. She came over and pulled my ear. I had a hard time reconciling her pulling my ear with her giving me a gift of pop beads at the end of the year. As far as I could tell, she was like Jekyll and Hyde.

3. Miss Beetle--Fourth grade teacher. I was in charge of a group project. She told me I did a good job of keeping everyone busy (delegating?). Also in that class we put on a play and had to sign up for the parts. If there were more than two people who signed up for a part, the class had to vote who to give the part to. Another girl, Jane, signed up for the princess and the witch. I only signed up for the witch. She was voted to be the princess. I was voted to be the witch. I thought I deserved the witch part.

4. Miss. Kimler--Sixth grade teacher. She was a lovely white-haired lady. She treated me with respect. When our class had to walk to the junior high at the end of the school year to see the sights, she asked me to wear anklets and I had planned on wearing nylons. I told I would do as she asked even though I felt really stupid doing it.

5. Mr. Elizondo--Jr. High Social Studies--On students' birthdays he sometimes gave them swats. On my birthday he had me come to the front of class and bend over, but I think he saw the fear in my eyes and had me go sit down. He was also the one who made students write "yeah" 500 or 1000 times if we said "yeah" instead of "yes". I'm thinking we should have written "yes" or "yes sir" a 1000 times instead. I wrote a list of "yeah" before I was caught so I would already have the work done. Then I never did get caught. Hmmph.

6. Miss Rogenski--Jr. High English--I was reading a book in class right in front of her. She had me bring the book to the front of the class and put it on the tray on the blackboard. Then she asked me a question about the material she had just covered, and I knew the answer. She was not happy. (I may have just mixed two incidents together. Oh, well. It makes a good story.)

7. Mr. Consonero--Jr. High Math--I had been in cooking class and was late to math because I had burned some eggs and had to stay to scrub the dish. When I got to class he said, "You have egg on your face." I didn't know this was a saying that had a meaning other than the literal one. I scrubbed my face for quite a while. Another time I was late for something similar and he told me I needed to use some elbow grease. I said I didn't have any, so he sent me to two or three teachers to ask if they had any elbow grease I could use. A good time was had by some, but not all.

8. Miss Pickering--Jr. High Science. She taught me how to take notes in the dark during a film by placing my left finger at the edge of the paper and writing straight across the page with my right hand and then moving my left finger down a little and writing another line across the page.

9. Mr. Collier--High School Government--If we said "and things like that" when we were speaking in front of the class, he would ask, "And things like what?" Then we would have to come up with a more extensive list than we had already given.

10. Miss Tookey--Senior English--She taught me how to write transitional statements from one paragraph to the next.

11. Mr. Boyd--Bible College Education and Bible Classes--He was probably the best teacher I ever had. He taught me how to be a teacher and how to study the epistles in a grammatical way. Loved him. He had great influence on me.

12. Dr. Wright--Bible College Bible Classes--He let me be part of his family life and was a friend.

13. Miss Fick--Bible College English Class--She was a very godly, elegant lady.

There were many others who had influence on my life. They helped make me who I am today in mostly good ways.