A Special Christmas Thank-You to All Teachers

[Buffalo Jim]

I grew up in a very small town in the Northern most part of NY State . I entered school in 1956 and graduated from High School in 1968 then went on to
a small public college and eventually earned an MBA .

It was a poor community and of course we did not have much exposure beyond the area where we lived . IE -- no cable TV .

I was fortunate to have been taught by many great and highly dedicated teachers from Kindergarten through High School . They taught me to love reading , history , math and the sciences .

They encouraged me along the way beginning in the 4th Grade telling me that
I could , should and must attend college . Neither of my parents had graduated from High School and I was the oldest child of four .
I distinctly recall my 4th Grade teacher , Mrs. Irene Marlof , asking me to stay after school one day . I could not figure out what I might have done wrong . I had been very sick for several weeks and had missed a lot of school . I had been working very hard to " catch up ".
Mrs. Marlof sat down next to me pulling up a student desk next to mine. She explained that she would be leaving our school soon to accept a new position out of the area . Her words I will never forget " Jim , I know that things are not easy for your family but you are a gifted student and my wish for you is that you set college as your goal and allow yourself to love learning .
By the 5th grade no one ever had to nag at me to study . I made college my goal and through college a better life for myself . I also as the oldest child wanted to set an example for my 3 younger siblings .
Space does not allow me to pay proper tribute to each of my teachers however I never had a " bad " teacher . Each in their own way was an inspiration .
Also I was fortunate to attend school when teachers were allowed to teach and allowed to discipline students who got out of line without fear of parental interference .
I lost touch with Mrs. Marlof . In May of 1972 I received my college degree and participated in graduation ceremonies . A few days later much to my surprise I received a graduation card from Mrs. Marlof !
She wrote : " My daughter graduated with her Masters Degree and I was in the audience . When I heard your name called and watched you walk up to get your degree I was so proud that it brought tears to my eyes . I never forgot about you " .
And Mrs. Marlof , I have never forgotten about you . The love of learning that you and others instilled in me allowed me to have a great life . Now in retirement I am able to spend many hours learning new things every day .
God Bless you and all teachers everywhere .

[Lbmb24101]

Very nice post!
I taughor for 30+ yrs and i loved my job but, i never hear from former students so it is hard to know. Your post validates how important teachers' comments and interests are and, what an important job teachers do.

[buggyone]

I had some very nice grade school teachers and also had teachers who did nothing more than occupy a spot on Earth.

Teachers get good pay in large cities and suburbs and an excellent retirement plan. They get two months off in the summer and plenty of vacation time during the year.

It is a job they chose. Not one they will get rich at on the grade school or high school level but still a good job with excellent retirement.

Some were good - some were worthless.

[DougB]

I had some very nice grade school teachers and also had teachers who did nothing more than occupy a spot on Earth.

Teachers get good pay in large cities and suburbs and an excellent retirement plan. They get two months off in the summer and plenty of vacation time during the year.

It is a job they chose. Not one they will get rich at on the grade school or high school level but still a good job with excellent retirement.

Some were good - some were worthless.

Thank you, Buffalo Jim, for the nice post! Very sad someone would take such a nice post and spin negativity into it.

[Bucco]

Despite an attempt to turn your tribute into a bashing session, it is refreshing to hear a tribute to someone who made a difference in your life.

Great story, and the attempt to go political will fail..it always does.

Isn't it something how someone had that "special" influence we have never forgot

[lovsthosebigdogs]

Thank you for your post Jim. I just retired from almost 30 years teaching special education. My job was challenging at times, but I loved my students with all my heart and wanted ALL of them to succeed in life and I hope I helped them do that. I always tried to help them focus on what they could do, rather than focus on what they couldn't do. I had a student come back and tell me I had changed his life because I taught him how to tie his shoes. It sounds like nothing to some people, but apparently to him, it was the world. My point is we never know how we affect the students we teach.
I don't respond to teacher bashers. I won't let their misconceptions affect what I know to be true for my students and myself. I know I made a difference and I know that every moment I spent with my students was time well spent. When children were in my room there were no coffee breaks, no moments talking on the phone, no time outs, no down time. Each moment with students in my classroom was time involved with children 100% . I am proud to say I was a teacher and posts like Jim's remind me of that.

[jimmemac]

Excellent post-taught for 37 years and have touched many lives that I am aware of-it's the one that I didn't know about but hear about years later that lets me know Ii did my job and did it well! Your story brought back many fond memories on this Christmas day-just one more present that I did not expect-thank you!!!

[buggyone]

I do not see how some construe my post as bashing.

I stated some of my teachers were very good and some were not good teachers. I stated that teachers in cities and suburbs get paid well, will not get rich, but have good retirement plans.

I stated that the teachers get two months off in the summer and have other vacation times during the year.

Not bashing at all. Teachers can be great influences or they can make school a miserable experience.

For example, when my wife was a 4th grader, she went to the school library and wanted to check out "Wizard of Oz". Her teacher said it was too advanced a book for a 4th grader but the librarian told the teacher to let her check out the book. The teacher made her do an oral book report on the book, told her it was all wrong because that was not how it was in the movie. The teacher had never read the book! This was not the way to build up a student's self-confidence and self-esteem.

My wife's mother was born left-handed and the school teachers told her she could not write left-handed in that school and must learn to be right-handed. She could not learn to be right-handed, teachers ignored her and she dropped out of school in the 10th grade.

Just like any profession - some are excellent and some are not good.

I am glad that the OP had excellent teachers all the way through high school - however, I would not give a special thank-you to all teachers.

What did I say that is not true?

[teacher204]

Thanks buffalojim for your kind post sharing the wonderful influence your teachers had on your life. I also grew up poor and was lucky enough to have excellent teachers who guided me along when my parents could or would not. My father grew up poor in Ireland. His mother died when he was only 6 years old. He was beaten and severely disciplined by the religious brothers who taught him and therefore, did not have a positive educational experience. This is why I can understand buggyone's response to this post. As a teacher myself, I can sense when a parent had a negative educational experience. They are usually very defensive during conferences and project their bad experiences onto their children. This is something that makes me very sad. My heart breaks when this happens because students are then set up to think every teacher is the enemy, when in most cases this is far from true. I am committed to honoring my past teachers by guiding my young students with as much care, patience and kindness as I was given.

[jbdlfan]

Thank You BuffaloJim. Your story is exactly why I teach!

[gamby]

Often visits us here in the Villages;


Welcome to the Shepaug Valley Middle School’s Technology Blog! (Connecticut)

My name is Sheila G. and I learned the art of being a technology teacher at a very innovative and creative school district, Bethel Public Schools. I was at Bethel Middle School for seven years. When I started, I was an English teacher, but a second M.S. degree in Computer Information Systems led me to apply for the position as the technology teacher at the middle school. I’ve always loved technology. My mother used to tell me and my brother that we could stay up all night playing video games….if we programmed them ourselves….so we did! Though we never made it until 3am like we had originally planned, we did learn some Basic Programming. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been involved with new and innovative technology. I love learning new things and living in this exciting and innovative time. It’s an amazing feeling when I see the “light bulbs go off,” and the twinkle in students’ eyes (if you know what I mean) as they solve complex problems or come to the realization that technology can do something they never thought possible… or never thought about at all. Like my students, I love to learn as much as I can about technology. In fact, one of the best things about my job is learning new things. Sometimes it feels as if my knowledge grows exponentially each year to learn different skills to teach students.

Since I started teaching technology, some of the things I’ve accomplished:
•Wrote curriculum for robotics, programming, and digital student classes
•Aligned PLTW curriculum to state and school standards
•Taught robotics building and programming with Lego Mindstorms NXT and VEX with RobotC
•Taught computer programming in Scratch, Alice, Javascript, and Objective C for iPhones
•Made WeDo sensors work through the USB ports to control objects in a video game via USB steering wheels made from Lego pieces
•Developed digital filmmaking and production units in the TV Studio and taught more cinematographic techniques for digital storytelling
•Learned and applied website programming with HTML, Javascript, and CSS, Dreamweaver, PHP, MySQL, ASP.NET, Visual Basic 10 and Visual Basic for Applications, iPhone Programming, and I’m currently learning HTML5 and C#
•Photoshop CS3, CS5 (try teaching layers to 7th graders…and art teachers….but I did it!!!)
•Taught pre-engineering through Project Lead the Way, including Design and Modeling and Automation and Robotics with 3D modeling and animation with Autodesk Inventor
•Provided technical support in hardware, software, and using technology in the classroom to a staff of approximately 50
•Provided formal and informal professional development to groups of teachers in different subject areas – I’ve taught many, many, many lessons to staff members on Smartboards, Senteos, iMovie, Garageband, Digital Storytelling, Video Production, TV Studio, Photoshop, and Web 2.0 Tools like Prezi, Blabberize, and YouTube

For the past four years I’ve also taught “How to Make Your Own Music Video,” Digital Photography, Robotics, and Video Game Programming through the Summer Enrichment Program and I teach iPhone programming and Manga Drawing after school. Many teachers have developed projects for their own classrooms after having seen the creative work we do over the summer.


It seems I always find ways to grow and improve. In my constant quest for knowledge, I recently attended an Engineering Externship through NextGen Manufacturing, where I worked at Branson Ultrasonics for 160 hours over the summer to learn about requirements gathering in the IT Department. I met with the Director of Engineering about several projects and I’ve built a few database applications. One of the projects I’m most proud of is the rebuilding of their Intranet site. It was developed to allow sharing and collaboration of information and to support multiple content contributors with different levels of permissions. At the end of the summer, my boss at Branson liked my work so much, he asked me to stay on as a part-time member of their amazing IT team and I’ve been there for two years now. The work I do there every day really connects to what I do in the classroom and I understand the skills that are vital to student success in a global economy.


One of the things I’m most proud of in my teaching career is that I helped to develop a program called The Digital Student. Magic happens in these classes. I’ve been able to teach students how to utilize today’s Web 2.0 tools to become creators and collaborators while they learn 21st Century Skills. I teach students skills they need to compete in a global marketplace, differences between open source and commercially licensed software, how to protect themselves online, how to program computers, video games, and robots, and how to go through the engineering design process to create an innovative product that solves a problem. I also teach digital filmmaking and try to incorporate it into as many projects as I can. A few of our students’ films were chosen to represent Bethel Middle School in the 2011 CT Student Film Festival. It is predominately a high school event, so as you can imagine, it was VERY special that our films were chosen to open up the festival!!! You could’ve heard a pin drop when they were viewed. The movies were riveting! You can view them on my teaching YouTube channel, bethelmiddleschooltelevision or on the CT Student Film Festival website: Why? and The Bullying Poem.


This year I am teaching at Shepaug Valley Middle School with a team of creative and amazing teachers. I teach a structured STEM class called Project Lead the Way. Students learn about the engineering design process, how to design and model in the 3D CAD modeling program called Autodesk Inventor, and how to design, build, and program VEX robotics kits. Students learn how to work collaboratively as part of a team to solve problems and to present their findings in a variety of ways.


The thing I love the most about teaching my classes is that students are entirely engaged and minds are always on! Many students come in for lunch everyday to work on various projects because they love it so much. As a teacher, I go above and beyond and try to teach students everything technological that they are interested in learning about, in addition to what our curriculum offers. If it is something I don’t know, I learn it and teach them.This is how “The App Factory,” an iPhone programming club, got started. Michael F. and Marco P. came to me to ask if I could teach it and I had been thinking about iPhone programming and had a couple of books, so it gave me the perfect opportunity to learn… and then teach… the best way to learn!


In the future, I hope to bring even more joy to the world of technology students as we delve deeper into the world of technological change with subjects such as biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, and alternative energy. I am also studying to learn how best to integrate technology in a more fluent way with core curricular subjects, how to enhance lessons with technology in the classroom, how to use assistive technology with SPED students, and how to best provide professional development for my peers in areas of technology and the upcoming Smarter Balanced Assessments.


In addition to my accomplishments in technology, I recently received my 092 Certificate in Intermediate School Leadership and I am serving as the assistant principal at Shepaug Valley Middle School, where I will help to assist our Technology Specialist in infusing technology into core curricular classes.

How do we get students to develop more meaningful and rich technology skills that can transfer across many platforms? We use technology a lot and in a very wide variety of ways. I am a teacher, but also a leader because I don’t just feed people, I also teach them how to fish… how to find the answers they don’t yet know. I “do good quietly.” One of my best traits is that I am a an innovator and I’m always ahead of the curve.

I’m out for now, but until we meet again, Happy Computational Thinking to All!!!

[buggyone]

Gamby's daughter writes a very good resume' and sounds like an excellent teacher. Her students sound motivated and she makes an important subject interesting.

I am sure Gamby's daughter would also deplore the type of teachers my mother-in-law had in the schools that tried forcing her to be right-handed and then ignoring teaching her so she dropped out of school during 10th grade.

I am also sure Gamby's daughter would find my wife's 4th grade teacher a bad example of teaching to tell her a book was to advanced to read, make the student do an oral report on it and then say it was wrong because the teacher had only seen the movie and never read the book.

As in every profession, there are very good and very poor teachers.

[kittygilchrist]

:bigbow: awesome post...thanks for the story, Bright One.

[manaboutown]

I can relate to Buggy on this one. I had some wonderful, dedicated teachers, some gifted teachers, some good teachers, some mediocre teachers, some teachers just putting in their time and a (very) few horrible teachers. Those that stand out and for whom I am especially grateful are my junior high boy's counselor, my band teacher in high school and a dean at my law school. On the other hand there are two abusive teachers in particular whom I will always abhor. As for compensation the teachers in New Mexico where I grew up are poorly paid whereas those in California, for example, are highly compensated.

BTW while in my thirties I ran into the counselor and band teacher and thanked them both. Along the way I have thanked some others, too. However I ran into one of the two horrible teachers when entering a restaurant with my family. He and I looked at one another. I immediately turned my family around and left the restaurant, never to return. My memory of him was that bad. Teachers have incredible power over their students which can be and is used for both good and evil.

[ggomba1]

Thanks Jim for your post. I was a math educator for 38 years and from time to time I hear from former students, and I am always touched by their remembering me. I'm especially surprised when I hear from some of the most difficult students that I taught who remember not only the subject matter , but the life lessons that I taught by my example in the classroom and in my coaching and extra-curricular activities.