Mr. A
The English teaching profession lost a great teacher earlier this week. I got the call from fellow classmate, Michelle. He passed away on his birthday, aged 63.
Mr A was not your ordinary teacher. He had his quirks, and his cool collection of chess pieces. I always loved walking into his room, located all the way at the end of Junior hall. Books, books, hand-made posters, checkerboards, books, papers and did I mention books? He had funny phrases to help you remember things like gerunds and the difference between independent and dependent clauses. His tests were always very interesting... typed out on an old typewriter, with little sketches penciled in.
I think back to many of my classroom practices, and thanks to Mr A, I was able to make class a little bit more exciting (well, in my mind at least.) Even though I didn't realize it then, he had a tremendous impact on how I taught in the classroom.
Some of my favorite Mr A moments:
- The BIG ELEVEN grammar sheets. (with sentences like, The toe wiggled thoroughly, who could forget adverbs!)
- The daily prayers with Bible verse and picture
- The Pink Panther ........ da-dah, da-dah, da-dah da-dah da-dah goooooooo Knights!
- The poster of Mike Tyson with Trickster
- K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid.)
- Keeping things from flying out the windows on nice days
- Getting Mr A off topic was never really that hard
- The Lit Magazine
- The research paper, with all of the little note cards stuffed in manilla envelops
- Skipping over parts of Huck Finn and the Crucible (see above, about getting him off topic - we ran out of time, so we skipped things.)
- His school spirit
- The orange jacket he wore when he walked to school
- Asking for our imput on Metzger park
You were a cool teacher, Mr A. Thanks for all of your hard work, your dedication to your students, and the energy your brought into the classroom. You did make a difference, and you will not be forgotten.
2 comments:
Very nice tribute to your English teacher... Unfortunately I don't think I ever had the opportunity to speak with the man but I know you hold a place near and dear in your heart for him and had a huge amount of respect for him as an educator. This is part of the problem with the "next generation." The majority of kids in school these days do not have this kind of respect for their teachers. The ME ME ME generation has definitely lost sight of what is important. Again well said honey, all in all a very nice tribute...
You took the words right out of my mouth. I had planned on blogging about it as well, which I still might. (notice the use of puncutation!) I forgot about the poster of Mike Tyson and Trickster, but I do remember the bright orange jacket he wore when he walked to school. What a great teacher! He will be missed.
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