Ideas From a 5th Grade Teacher

On May 24, 1980, I jotted down my top ten list of things I wanted to do as a teacher.  It was the end of my 5th grade year, and I did not want to forget the ideas I had formed in Mr. Neal Lang's class at Slate Run Elementary School.  The teaching bug had bitten me early, and Mr. Lang was everything I thought a professional, organized, educational leader should be.  He required us to keep an assignment book in which it was our responsibility to write the homework that he had listed on the board each day for our various subjects.  Even though this was still elementary school, his approach made me feel big and important, no longer a little boy who had to be spoon fed his assignments.

I was recently talking with Sarah Pies, my friend who serves as Educator Effectiveness Specialist and director of the Indiana Teacher of the Year program at the Indiana Department of Education, and told her about the list I had made in 5th grade.  She thought it would be a neat idea for me to blog about it now, so I asked my mom to send it to me, and here we are.

As with many children, going to the doctor made me want to be a doctor, going to the dentist made me want to be a dentist, and the desire to be a teacher when I was in 5th grade was specifically the desire to teach that grade level.  Some of my ideas from thirty-five years ago were clearly related to teaching at the elementary level, such as having sign & return folders for student work, but others have made their way into my current high school Latin classroom.  For example, idea #1 plays out electronically.  I have on my computer at school 8,601 files in 509 folders.  For what it is worth, I do not like having my apps strewn across my iPhone landscape, but keep them all in appropriately labeled folders, too.

While I do not lead my students in physical education every day (idea #10), we occasionally take a "walkabout," in which we walk around the school, pointing out and naming things in Latin.  Why do we do that?  We do it because sometimes students, and teachers, just need to get up and get the blood flowing again.

A no-comic-book policy (idea #3) has morphed into requiring students to put their smart phones away, at least during certain activities.  My list of materials at the beginning of school asks students to bring some kind of writing utensil every day and a colored pen for marking assignments (idea #6).  I do not list homework assignments on the board (idea #2), but put them in a Word document on our website.

As I look back at the list I wrote in 5th grade, three things strike me.  The first is idea #8, "Have a good sense of humor."  Not one period of one day goes by in which there is not considerable laughter in my room.  We have fun with learning and fun with each other, and along the way a true culture of family grows among our Latin students.

The second idea that catches my attention is #9, "Read to students every day."  I do not fulfill this in the classroom, but at home as I continue to read each night to our children.  It is always the best part of my day, and I am glad we still enjoy this even as our children are growing older.

The third thing that strikes me about this list is the list itself.  I have wanted to be many things over the years, some with more and some with less seriousness:  author, public speaker, lead singer in a hair metal band, blues guitarist, etc.  Yet at my core I am a teacher.  I have been since Kindergarten when I came home one day to find my grandma visiting, whereupon I gave her a quiz and gleefully marked everything wrong to give her an F.  I have been since 5th grade when I began to get serious about planning for a life in education.  I have been since high school when the pieces started to fall into place, and I knew that I would teach Latin.  Teaching is not just what I do.  It is who I am.

Why I Love Teaching, Part 1

It is Why Do You #LoveTeaching Week across America.  My friends Gary Abud (2014 Michigan Teacher of the Year) and Sean McComb (2014 National Teacher of the Year) are behind this project.  As this infographic suggests, teachers all over the country will be blogging and tweeting stories about why they love teaching.

Yes, the education profession is the subject of intense talk these days, and not all of it is positive.  #LoveTeaching cuts through all that and takes us directly to people.  After all, teaching is a most human and humane enterprise.  And since teaching is about people, I decided to make my first post on #LoveTeaching about those who influenced me, my own teachers.

From Kindergarten through graduate school, I was blessed to be a student of some of the finest educators.  I thought so at the time because, well, they were my teachers, and it is the natural state of affairs for children to love their teachers.  After twenty-four years of teaching at the middle school, high school, community college, and university levels, I can confidently say that I was right.  These are the reasons I #LoveTeaching.

Irvin Goldstein - 6th grade

Mr. Goldstein taught 6th grade at Slate Run Elementary School in New Albany, Indiana.  He prepared us as no one else could have for the world of higher learning we would encounter in junior high.  He sparked and developed my love of writing, and I owe him a debt to this day.

Linda DeRungs - high school choir

Mrs. DeRungs was my high school choir director.  I still find myself singing pieces from her choirs such as "Sicut Cervus," "Ave Maria," and "Ave Verum," even when I am going about the business of daily life.  I remember once asking her what sort of shoes we should wear for an upcoming concert, and she remarked the grey ones I had would be perfect.  I was stunned.  She had seen me wear a certain pair of shoes and remembered.  I make it a point today to comment on the clothes and personal items of my students because of her.

Jim Dickman (center) - high school Calculus

Jim Dickman is a brilliant force of nature.  He taught me racquetball and Calculus, but more importantly, he modeled the life of the intellect lived out in the public square.  Because he was a true master of his subject, mathematics, he was able to make it accessible to those just starting on its journey.  I continue to talk with younger teachers about the importance of subject mastery for the effectiveness of teaching.

Alice Ranck Hettle -- sophmore & junior Latin

Simply put, I would not be doing what I am doing were it not for Miss Ranck.  Even though she retired at the end of my junior year to marry her high school sweetheart, she had already given me my life's direction.  Were I to describe the full measure of her influence, the Internet would crash.  She was a scholar and teacher of the first order, and there is not a day that goes by that her influence is not felt by the students in my own classroom.

Marcene Farley - senior Latin

Marcene (Holverson) Farley was my Latin teacher during my senior year, yet despite that I had her as a teacher for only one year, she remains a dear friend and colleague.  Not a month passes that we do not talk about education issues, she in Illinois now and I in Indiana.  She has been one of my greatest champions and cheerleaders from high school, in college, and throughout my teaching career.  She is a daily reminder and model to me of what true investment in the life of a child should look like, an investment I endeavor to repay in the lives of my own students.

Dr. Timothy Long (center) - Indiana University Classics 

Tim Long taught me Greek and became my friend.  It is as simple as that.  While I will always remember his teaching me the foundations of Greek, it is his friendship that I cherish above all.  I spent time in his office discussing heartbreak issues over the girl I was dating, and it was no surprise, but a great honor, when he attended our wedding a few years later.  I see him almost every time I am in Bloomington and have consulted him countless times on Classics-related questions over the years.  He regularly met with my students when we used to take an AP Latin trip to IU, and when he retired, we established a scholarship in his name at my high school.  In ways my students will never know, he is teaching them every day.

Dr. Betty Rose Nagle - Indiana University Classical Studies

 Betty Rose taught the first and the last Latin classes of my undergraduate career.  As a freshman I had her for Cicero and as a senior for Ovid.  I will never forget her teaching me crucial aspects of how to write at the collegiate level during that freshman class, and today we remain friends on Facebook.  As a go-to person whenever I have a Classics question, she is the perfect example of the lifelong relationship between teachers and students.

Dr. Eleanor Winsor Leach - Indiana University Classical Studies

Ellie Leach led me through the poetic works of Horace and Catullus, and through her I learned why certain (naughty) words were not listed in my dictionary!  My wife was fortunate to have her as well, and when she attended our wedding, it was an honor.  Even more striking to us was when she remembered us as we ran into her on campus years later.  I was blessed a few years ago to give away one of my former students in marriage, having been asked by both her and her mother, and I could not help thinking of Ellie and what it means for teachers to be deeply involved in the lives of their students.

Dr. Michael Gagarin - The University of Texas Classics

Michael taught my first graduate seminar in Classics, which was on the Greek Sophists.  When he asked me to share in the seminar something I had written in one of my papers, I was flattered and overwhelmed.  I had the great fortune of teaching his daughter later when she was in my high school Latin class in Austin, Texas, and when he spoke a few years ago at Wabash College, I had to make the trip to see him.

Dr. William Nethercut - The University of Texas Classics

I knew Bill in two completely different ways.  First, I knew him as my professor of Medieval Latin and then through his wife, Jane, a high school Latin teacher in Austin who was my colleague.  Bill brought the pure joy of life to his work as a teacher and scholar.  He was constantly laughing and smiling, and it is that sort of atmosphere I strive to create with my students today.  After all, Latin and Classics are part of the humanities, which means they are about people, and human endeavor should principally focus on life.

I wish I had pictures of all my teachers from Kindergarten through graduate school.  I can remember almost every one of them and have many stories to tell.  Instead, I will let this simple graphic, reminiscent of the Vietnam memorial, share their names.  Some have passed on, although many are still with us.  Each contributed one of the many reasons I #LoveTeaching.