I truly believe that the greatest gift that you can give to another person is to genuinely let them know that who they are and what they do matters. It has been my goal in 2014 to become a more thoughtful person. A string of deaths to some individuals who positively affected my life led me to conceive this series. As the words to my favorite song go, “And for those who have stood by my side, you are the story I tell.” You are the words and pages to my story.
Over the course of the next several months, I will be writing open letters to those who have positively impacted my story. I’m not going to lie. It is my goal to make you cry, not out of grief or pain but out of the realization that you do truly matter. I am not doing this in order of how important you are to me. For the most part (other than birthdays or other important events), the letters will be done in a random order. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you come away from this with the realization that you are extremely important to me.
Dear Mrs. Lindemulder, Mrs. Toranzo, Mr. Clifton, Mr. Pfeffer, Ms. O’Malley, and Dr. Tuttle,
Most people have one or two teachers that they can look back on and say “Wow, they really made a difference in my life.” I have had the good fortune of having six teachers that I can look back on and definitively notice the impact that was made on my life. Sure, I had other good to great teachers, but the six of you stood out the most.
I believe the Bible says something to the effect of “Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” For that reason, I believe that primary grade teachers are especially important. I admire anyone who can effectively work with children of that age. I could never do it because I could never deal with all the crying!
Mrs. Lindemulder, you were the perfect kindergarten teacher. You made each of us feel valued and important. You took a potentially scary experience (starting school) and made it enjoyable, and you did it in a way that did not compromise our education. I still remember all sorts of things I learned during kindergarten (especially that crayon song). I hope I didn’t cause any permanent damage to your arm with how hard I shook it during kindergarten graduation!
The one thing I will remember most is the way that you were able to get your point across without raising your voice with us. You had 24 of us in that room, and you did not have the luxury of having any aide in the classroom. You were able to reach us and get us to cooperate and focus by treating us with love and patience—the hallmarks of a great educator.
Mrs. Toranzo, I will always remember you for a number of reasons. First, you were the first teacher I was taller than while I was a student! Secondly, I have never met a teacher with the classroom management skills that you had. There were nearly 30 of us, and not once did we get too far out of control. I remember on the first day of school we did not get to go to gym because our behavior was not what it needed to be. You set the tone from day one how things were going to work, and we quickly fell into place. I also remember how you had a way of making everything we did seem like the most exciting thing in the world. I remember how much I wanted to get to wear the “Quiet Worker” or “Wise Worker” pin to lunch. You made school something to be excited about, and your enthusiasm for learning made first grade one of the best years of my life. I still think back on it quite fondly.
Mr. Clifton (sorry, I still cannot bring myself to call you Rob), you are the reason I ever thought about a career in teaching at all. You were my first male teacher, and you were the youngest teacher I ever had. You had an innate ability to relate to us, whether by talking to us about your own life story and interests, finding out our interests, or relating the text to bizarre pop culture items. I’ll never forget the Whopper Jr./Grasshopper Jr. comparison. You were everything I thought a middle school teacher should be. As I have learned these past five years, it takes a unique individual to thrive in a setting with students of that age. You cared about us in a genuine way, and you made us feel respected. In every job interview I am asked what made me want to be a teacher, and in every interview I get to talk about you a little bit. That’s the impact you have made.
Mr. Pfeffer, when I got to high school, I didn’t want to be there in the slightest. It was all new and unfamiliar, and at that age I had a serious aversion to new and unfamiliar. Most days during my freshman year of high school I had a genuine fear of coming to school. Yet every day I looked forward to your Global Studies class. It was the one hour of the day that I truly felt safe. We had a small class, and you took the time to get to know us and work with us individually. I’ll never forget being in that class on September 11, 2001. What could’ve been a truly scary and scarring experience for us kids turned into a learning experience. You were calm and collected and really helped to ease our fears. I’m sorry I didn’t do as well in A.P. European History as I probably could have, but it was a blessing to have learned under you in two classes. It was an even greater blessing to come back to Tinley during college and spend my practicum hours learning under you. As far as social studies teachers go, there is none finer.
Ms. O’Malley, you taught me everything I needed to know about writing. From day one, you set high expectations for us. I remember being horrified about having to do a writing assignment on the first day of class. You set high standards for us because you knew we could reach them. You didn’t just stand back and watch us fail. You guided us each step of the way. You helped me find my voice as a writer, and you gave me confidence to express myself through the written word. It is because of you that I fell in love with writing and started a blog.
Later on in high school, I had a teacher who wanted things done her way. I remember being so frustrated in that class because things were done so much differently than how you taught me. But I remember seeing you in the hallway one day and you just encouraged me to do my best. By the time I got to college, I decided to forget everything I learned from that teacher and just write the way you taught me. I never received anything less than an A on any paper, both during my undergraduate and master’s experiences. Thank you for giving me my voice.
Dr. Tuttle, you showed me what it takes to be a good teacher. The class I took from you in college was my favorite undergraduate class. You were always firm, but you were always fair as well. You set high expectations but always showed us that you had a heart for us students. You were such a great mentor as my university supervisor during my student teaching experience. I recall one day when you were in for an evaluation and my students were working a bit more loudly than I would have preferred. I started to get frazzled and you pulled me aside and told me to take a step back and examine the noise. The chatter I was hearing was all about their work. You taught me how to focus on the right things as a teacher.
Each of you has made a significant impact in my life. Every day I walk into my classroom and hope to be half as good as each of you were to me. I try to use something I learned from you in my own educational practice. You have influenced me so greatly as a student, as a teacher, and as a person. I am so grateful to have learned under each of you, and I hope you recognize the impact you have made in my life.
All the best,
Jakob
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