My first week of year 29 teaching in an elementary school is behind me. Last Monday, as I listened to our superintendent and again on Tuesday while I listened to our principal, I was challenged to build relationships with my students. Positive, encouraging, appropriate relationships. Now, to be honest, they usually touch on this thought every year in our opening meeting (along with communication which is another post to write for another day), but this year…I thought, “I should travel through my educational memories to see what stands out.”

Let’s get this walk down memory lane started….

In Tipton, I attended nursery school. That’s what preschool was before preschool, I suppose. My only memory was a play kitchen. I don’t remember the teachers or the learning, but I do remember the joy of the play kitchen.

Next came kindergarten with Mrs. Stout. I remember she was really tall, or she at least seemed really tall. I have no memory of kindergarten outside of that. However, Mrs. Stout made me feel really important when I started first grade. Why? She had my speech teacher ask me “how” I tied my shoes. It seemed her new class had a lot of kids who didn’t know how, and she remembered I learned quickly. I was quite proud to teach my speech teacher how to use bunny ears to tie shoes. Boom! I rocked as a first grader.

First grade had me moving from a tall Mrs. Stout to a short Miss Knopp. My two first grade memories are playing with the cement turtle on the playground while being chased my Kenny and the fact that my teacher wore high heels every single day. I’m guessing because she was short. She wasn’t much taller than the older elementary students, but she was pretty and nice. What she taught me? I have no idea. I don’t remember a single interaction with her, but she was pretty and short. Ha.

In second grade, I had “an old” teacher. Her name was Mrs. Hart. Now, to be honest she may have just been a little older than my parents, but my memory is she was old. I remember Tony Z. bringing a snowball inside and storing it in his desk. When there was an afternoon puddle, we all laughed including Mrs. Hart. However, the next day, he tried for a repeat chuckle and failed. He left snow outside after that. My other memory was cleaning chalkboard erasers and being able to “pick somebody” to clean them with you. When it was my turn, I picked Jody D. I mean, when you like somebody in second grade and you’re quiet and shy (I’m sure that shocks some of you) that’s about as close as you get to letting the boy know.

In third grade, I have 3 distinct memories. First, we were now living in Shelbyville, IN. I attended a small school. To show your mastery of multiplication, a student would go to the office and be quizzed with flashcards by the principal and needed to complete it in a specific amount of time. This quiet bashful third grader was scared to death, but I proudly achieved the status. Then, Mrs. Wheeler had my friends Kim, Shana, and I go up to Mr. Warnke’s math class. He taught fourth grade. His boys acted like we were dumb little girls, SO I showed them! I wrote a problem like 234 x 1,000,000,000,000,000 on a paper and quickly wrote down the answer. They never bothered us again. Whenever we get to the multiples of 10 math lesson, I ALWAYS tell this story to my students. The last memory always leads to a vocabulary & writing lesson in my current classroom. While I was out sick, I had to write a paragraph about transportation or something. I used my sister’s 6th grade book to get some information. When I went to read it to my class, I couldn’t pronounce one of the words. Rather than teaching me phonetic skills or helping me with the correct speech patterns, she wrote, “This is plagiarism because if you wrote it you would know how to say the words.” I had no idea what plagiarism was, and she never told me. So, each year, my students learn what it is and not to do it.

In fourth grade, we had moved to Madison, which is where I live now. I have lots of memories of my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Owings. Whether it was reporting if a classmate who struggled with body odor was improving or being impressed with my work after I missed the entire month of January with illness, Mrs. Owings was encouraging. I also remember Johnny Appleseed Day. I tried to start “Johnny Appleseed Day” in fourth grade where I currently teach, but it never took off. Maybe we should try it again?

In 5th grade, I had Mrs. Combs. I remember math races on the board and having Jason as my toughest competitor. I remember Jennifer and I attempting to store our things on an empty shelf at the back of the room, and Mrs. Combs telling us nicely that our things should be in our desks.

In 6th grade, my teacher was Mr. Stoner. My first memory from day 1 was his bulletin board. He had an 8×10 of his wife and an 8×10 of his dog. That made perfect sense to this animal loving student. I remember him having a packet of songs and us sitting in a circle outside singing songs as he played the guitar. I also remember him filling up an entire chalkboard with social studies notes for us to copy. Ugh – I hated (and am still not a fan) of social studies. It was also in 6th grade that I earned my first recess detention (for doing the wrong homework), but he let me leave early since it wasn’t a habit. I went to Mrs. Knowland for Reading, but I don’t remember any of the books we read or writing we did. I had Mr. Lamb for math, and I remember that I stunk at “the stock market” which he had us “play” in class. His class was my first academic C, and I remember being in tears needing to let Dad know that I had a C.

That led me to junior high and high school. Too many teachers to count, but I remember that Mr. Robinson would say my name as Jo-DEE in jest and that my 8th grade science teacher went to church with me. My French teacher encouraged me to consider becoming a French teacher. My favorite high school teacher was Mr. Dugan. I had him for two of my three years of high school. He encouraged me to be a math teacher, and he’d have me help him in the “tutoring room” during my study hall. One of my favorite classes was etymology which could be why I’m such a love of words and vocabulary, but my personality didn’t mesh well with that class’ instructor.

In the end, I get it. Relationships matter. Connections matter. I still interact with some of my teacher on Facebook, and a few have purchased copies of my books. Once, I ran into Dugan and his wife at Culver’s eating lunch, and when I was still standing at his table visiting when my meal came out.

Relationships matter. Not just relationships between teacher & students, but also your relationship with coworkers. How do the you get along with the people you work with? Do you need to work on it? I’ve had great, good, and not-so-hot relationships with coworkers. Sometimes, I just decide to kill ’em with kindness when they’re rough. I’ve learned that that skill can eventually transform challenging connections into blessings.

However, the most important relationship for me is the one I have with my Creator. He loves me through the good, bad, and the ugly. He helps me be the best me I can be, so I can give Him the glory. I don’t always shine, but I try. If you don’t know Him, I’d love to introduce you.