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Favorite Teacher Memories - Essays Mrs. Wendleboe Mrs. England Mrs. Hamlin Mrs. Cheryl Simmons Mrs. Catt and Merrill Hoban Mrs. Janet Hall Mrs. Olive Ranck Mr. Owen Suits Mr. Charles M. Hinton Mr. John Parshall Miss Jean Grubb Mr. Gene Rausch Mrs. Marti Hufford Submit your favorite teacher memory today! Video stories – Please keep your video less than two minutes in length and record it as a RealMedia or Windows Media file. Please mail the disc to the address below. Written stories – Please keep your story to 250 words or less. You may complete the Memorable Teacher form, send it via email to senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov or mail it to the address below.
Mrs. Wendleboe Mrs. Wendleboe was my high school AP chemistry teacher. She was notorious for bringing humor into her lengthy lectures of matter, theories, and reactions. Her most prominent joke, was the cation and anion analogy. She would draw, on the blackboard, a cation with two positive electrons as eyes, and then a cat nose with whiskers. This was called the plussy cat. It usually gained groans from the class, but I always enjoyed her efforts. Mrs. England My second grade teacher, Mrs. England, was devoted to her students and helping us develop into creative individuals. She encouraged, and continues to encourage her students to explore the world around them and see its possibilities. We did countless fun and yet still educational things. She taught us manners at a real breakfast- complete with fine silverware, we learned about the Pilgrims during our Pilgrim play, which included a huge Mayflower replica, and we learned about the jungle when the entire room was transformed into a magical rainforest. Those are just some of a few things she did to make what would have been a boring school day extraordinary. Mrs. Hamlin Entering fifth grade I was less than a model student. Poor study habits and a general lack of interest in completing work was my norm. Mrs. Hamlin obviously could see through the facade and see a capable, hard-working student lurking beneath. With ever-diligent patience and fortitude she day-by-day worked with me. Handwriting was her first challenge. She would take the time to mark every letter that did not slant properly and require that I redo hand-written work until the cursive slant was to her liking. I recall many papers returned to me awash in a sea of red slant markings. I truly liked Mrs. Hamlin and would do almost anything to please her. Apparently this desire to please my teacher was the impetus that spurred me to follow her corrections. Once handwriting was improved it was on to the other areas that needed improvement. In reviewing my fifth grade report card the first grading period was mediocre at best with "capable of doing better" checked! The next grading periods noted marked improvements. The final grading period, we had six back then, was noted that I "was honor-roll material." While I was not always listed on the honor-roll, I can truly thank Mrs. Hamlin for taking the time to work with me. I am completing my 31st year of teaching and often wonder about Mrs. Hamlin. Her legacy lives on in my oft-complimented handwriting and the hundreds of lives I have touched because I, too, became a teacher. Mrs. Cheryl Simmons Mrs. Simmons was one of the best educators I have had. She would work tirelessly to ensure each of her students excelled both inside and outside of the classroom. One of the most memorable things about Mrs. Simmons was her constant push for us to think outside of the box. She encouraged us to always use respect and think with equality for every person we came in contact with. An appreciation for art and music was also very important to her. She balanced personal and group work delicately, teaching us that each was just as important as the other and one day in a job we would have to do the same. She had respect for every other teacher in the school, even when the class would complain about the ways of her colleagues. She was so humble as year after year our class continued to tell her how much she meant to us and that no one will ever compare. Many of us still stay in contact with her. I hope that in some small way it lets her know how much she did for us, how she touched our lives in ways that she will never know. I will never forget the guidance and encouragement she gave us and hope that every child has at least one teacher in their life as wonderful as Mrs. Simmons.
Mrs. Catt and Merrill Hoban Mrs. Catt was a comforting, assuring, second mother to me in the third grade at Palmer Elementary in Kokomo, IN in 1947. My dad was still in a hospital in England from war injuries and my mom was working 2 jobs (Stellite making bomb parts and Mygrant Candy Store) and doing such a fantastic job keeping me and my grandparents believing and smiling in spite of all the anxieties. Mrs. Catt would greet us every day with smiles and hugs and a personal question or comment that I didn't realize until much later how truly deeply she felt for all of us. A beautiful lady.
What powerful examples of caring and dedicated people who believed that teachers could be of value! We are blessed for having had them in our lives.
Mrs. Janet Hall Mrs. Hall was my first grade teacher. I remember her as one of the kindest teachers that I ever had. I'll never forget Oreo the guinea pig that she had in her room that students took turns taking home on weekends to care for or the stuffed teddy bear named Beary. We also took him home and kept a log of what Beary did with us while he was in our care. The one thing that was so outstanding about Mrs. Hall was that when she attended my graduation open house she brought me this packet. Inside of it contained a picture from first grade of my class and one of the logs from when I got to take Beary home. It brought back some really cool memories and it was awesome that she kept those things for practically 11 years. I still see Mrs. Hall around quite a bit and she still calls me Kendall Mae, Mae being my middle name. It is nice to know that she still remembers me and she is one teacher that I will never be able to forget.
Mrs. Olive Ranck Mrs. Ranck was my home economics teacher in Jr. High and then my senior year of high school. She could be described as prim and proper and, although she was a nice teacher, she had little patience for the giddiness of Jr. High girls. This didn't make her a very popular teacher. In Jr. High, home economics was a required course for girls so Mrs. Ranck did the best she could to teach us to cook, sew, knit and crochet. But by the time you got to high school, it was an elected subject. I chose to major in home economics mainly because I thought it was an easy "A", but I did love to sew! We had a couple of other home ec teachers in 10th and 11th grades, but by the time senior year rolled around those of us that still took home ec were faced with Mrs. Ranck again! Much to our surprise we were treated as mature young women and not silly little girls! I guess after 5 years the non-serious students were weeded out and the rest of us were there because we wanted to be. Although my mother set an excellent example, it was Mrs. Ranck who really fostered the homemaker in me. She taught me to sew and crochet to perfection! And she taught me to be a neat cook and not have a mess all over the kitchen! From her I learned to tap into my creativity! I can't tell you how many times I have been called "Betty Crocker" or "Susie Homemaker"! And to this day whenever I create something special, my mother or myself will say, "Wouldn't Mrs. Ranck be proud!" So, although Home Economics is an extinct course and so many young women today can't even fry an egg or sew on a button, I am proud of the instruction I received from Mrs. Ranck. I don't hold a high-powered position, but I can bake a chocolate chip cheesecake like nobody's business!
Mr. Owen Suits Mr. Suits was my math teacher at Selma Middle School. Math was and will never be my best or easiest subject, but somehow he made me feel that I was good at it. He always had a smile on his face and a ready joke to break the tension in the room. He cared about his students and remembered me even after I had graduated from college and started substitute teaching, before I had found a teaching position. When I ran into him again, he had started teaching elementary school. We talked about whom I had married and who he knew and if I knew who they knew. We talked about cars and which cars we should buy or wanted to buy. I had run into an old friend, an old friend who made my life a little easier by turning a hard subject into an easy one. I have tried hard to model my teaching after his: warm, caring, lighthearted, the knowledge that every child can succeed.
Charles M. Hinton My favorite teacher was also the school principal. Everyone I have spoken with over the last 20-30 years always tells me that he was strict, but the most memorable trait was that he was FAIR. If you got into trouble, you new what was coming, AND, new you were at fault. He retired as Dean Of Boys from North Side High School in Fort Wayne after 43 years in the teaching profession. He will be 101 years old on February 4, 2008. He can still do math (calculate bushels per acre from his farm) in his head, and never did have much use for a calculator!! The BEST part of all this is that he is my father.
Mr. John Parshall Mr. Parshall came to Richmond as the new band director in 1964 and promptly came in 35th at the state fair marching band contest. This was a huge disappointment to the entire city and the music department in particular. Richmond was one of the top schools in the state and one of the five largest at that. The next year, I was a freshman and a trombone player. Our class was loaded with musical talent and Mr. Parshall expected big things from us. I will never forget that freshman summer of marching in preparation for that contest. It was brutal! I had played some football and knew what physical demands were expected on that playing field. This was something completely different yet no less of a physical challenge. Mr. Parshall was like a drill sergeant; in your face, asking for more, more and more volume and effort. He would stomp off the field in disgust after we seemingly got it right. It seemed that it was never good enough for him. It all paid off that glorious day at the state fair when they announced Richmond number 9 out of 132 bands. That only set us up for higher expectations the next year. The result was #2 in the state. Everything from that point on was anti-climatic because we knew this man and what he meant to all of us. He instilled confidence. He challenged us to be better and do more than we ever dreamed we could do or be. I will never forget what this man did for me personally as an individual. We were no longer geeks, we were members of the elite, the band. And everyone in school looked at us differently. We all went through life knowing that if we really wanted something bad enough, it was just a matter of effort.
Miss Jean Grubb Jean Grubb is my favorite teacher because of the high expectations she had for us as journalism students and for the extra lengths that she went to produce an outstanding school newspaper. She insisted that we learn professional standards of conduct and objectivity that have remained my guideposts to this day, some 40 years later. She encouraged good, descriptive writing and she hammered home valuable lessons about avoiding double meanings, about getting it right and fair and not publishing gossip. Producing the school newspaper, The Shortridge Daily Echo, required that she come to school early and often stay late, that she account for advertising and subscription money and that she work with five different staffs of students (one for each day). She repeatedly was called upon to defend the educational necessity for keeping the paper, which was a money-losing proposition. Three years ago, the Indiana High School Press Association presented her a long-overdue life membership in recognition of her accomplishments as advisor for 24 years to the only daily high school newspaper in Indiana. Now, at age 104, she still inquires after the well-being of the students she taught at SHS and she still critiques the performance of the press and those involved in presenting the news - using the same standards she enforced in the classroom.
Mr. Gene Rausch My favorite teacher is a very easy one. He was my Industrial Arts instructor at Rossville High School His name was Mr. Gene Rausch. He was always ready to help a student create something new and exciting, not only with wood but also with their mind. He was challenging everyone to think outside of the box. His door was always open to any student that needed his advice, wisdom, or just someone to talk to. When I think of Mr. Rausch, I think of a teacher who was caring, compassionate, professional, amazingly talented, watchful, safe, and really wanting to teach. An arson fire in 1995 destroyed his entire wood shop, classroom, and 20 years of teaching records. He spent sleepless nights and 20-hour days for an entire summer rebuilding his shop, getting his classroom back in order, and never once did I ever hear a complaint. He had a job to do and that was to be ready to teach. He was a teacher that had the respect of his co-workers and students, whether he was their favorite or not. His department was closed in 2000, and a student who was not one of the best students came back to tell the school was a mistake it would be to lose Mr. Rausch as a teacher, he was one of the few teachers that never gave up on him. That student went on to become college graduate, thanks in part to the persistent guidance of Mr. Rausch. That truly is a sign of ONE GREAT TEACHER. How do I know all this about my favorite teacher, well not only is he that but he is also a close friend, hero, and mentor. Mr. Rausch is my father. I have never had a better teacher in my life than him. To this day I still learn everyday from him. He retired last year from teaching to follow a life-long dream to be his own boss with a small remodeling company.
Mrs. Marti Hufford Mrs. Hufford was my junior Creative Writing teacher, Etymology teacher, Senior Honors English teacher, and lifelong mentor. Mrs. Hufford has been so many students "favorite teacher" not only because she was such a vibrant energy in the classroom, but also because she challenged us. She made us work to improve ourselves as writers and as people. She would leave us on Friday with the phrase, "Make good choices!" She attended many after school functions and was a bright light to many students who did not have support at home. She would spend countless hours grading papers, rush down to a volleyball game, and then return to her room. She inspired me to work harder, and to expect nothing less than my absolute best. This December, I graduated from Purdue with my degree in English Education. I received the most wonderful compliment in a card from my sister saying, "Someday, you will be someone's Mrs. Hufford."
The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Senator Dick Lugar and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. |
