Monday, April 18, 2011

A Favorite Teacher

On Easter Sunday at 9PM on CBS,there will be a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, called, Beyond the Blackboard. I hope to watch it,because I am a big fan of Hallmark movies and the commercials. I decided to write about just one of my favorite teachers and how she inspired me. Here is the writing.

A Favorite Teacher

My first grade teacher was Mrs. Gifford at Pierpont Primary School in Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1957. She made learning fun! Reading about Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot and Boots in the cozy reading circle is a treasured memory. Mrs. Gifford kept an M & M candy dispenser in the front corner of the classroom. She would allow us to put a penny in the machine and turn the shiny knob and out would pour the multi-colored sweet treat. I guess Mrs. Gifford knew many secrets to winning over her young students, with candy being one great motivator. Yes, I know that food rewards are not encouraged as a major teaching tool nowadays, but hey, it works.
Even as a six year old, I could tell Mrs. Gifford loved her students. She smiled a lot. She encouraged us with reading contests, handwriting awards, and a fishing game at the school carnival. No, we didn’t catch fish, but throwing a fishing line over a sheet and having a prize hooked on and then reeling it over the sheet was something this former first grader will never forget.
Thanks to Mrs. Gifford’s example to me, my teacher dream began in her class. Four years ago, I retired from teaching after twenty-eight years. My last six years of teaching was in the first grade. My teacher dream began in her warm and welcoming first grade classroom. Mrs. Gifford has gone on to her heavenly home, or should I say heavenly classroom, and I will see her again one day. Thanks a bunch, Mrs. Gifford!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

April Showers



This past week, two of my friends had a baby shower for my daughter. It was much fun and we were able to have the shower right here in our home. That worked out best for everyone. We even had a real spring shower that evening, compliments of God. It was great to be able to come together to shower Rebecca with love and gifts. One of her friends came late and that was wonderful as it was a nice surprise. We are so glad that she decided to jump in the car no matter how late. One of the cards she received was priceless. I think it was called the Parents' Patron Verse. It said, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." The shower was focused on how God would have us respond to the calling of being a mom. A story was shared about one's occupation when you become a mom. You're not "Just a Mom". You are as many would say, a domestic engineer, a 24/7 worker, a singer (as the lullabies spill forth at 3 AM),a quick change artist when there is a last minute spit-up, a fulltime nurse,a chauffeur, and a myriad of other jobs. You are most definitely not just a mom.
There is nothing more soothing than rocking a baby, as a friend who recently became a grandma for the third time reminded me. When I would rock my two to sleep, I sang one lullaby more than other ones. It goes like this, "rockin', rollin', ridin', all along the way. All bound for morning town, many, many miles away." (repeat the verse, 'til baby is soundly sleeping.) There was something disturbing about the rock-a-bye baby lullaby, so I didn't like to sing that one. The little diddy about rockin', rollin' and ridin', has a soothing-cowboy-esque melody.
As my baby girl has already begun the adventure of mothering her little one in the womb and soon to be in the real world. May she be continually showered with wisdom as well as a light-heartedness as she and her husband bring up their little bundle of joy in the way he should go.