The best teacher that I ever had was my fourth grade teacher. This was my first experience with a male teacher which at the time was anxiety producing. The world of education back in the 80s and 90s was primarily female. The summer was spent being curious. What would he be like? Would he know how to teach? Would he have a loud disciplinary voice? Would our classroom be sitting in row silently listening to lectures? Of course, as a ten year old female child in elementary school, my assumptions were that he would be the complete opposite of every female teacher I had prior to me and I was right!
The first day of school I remember entering the classroom. He greeted each of us at the door, asked our name and then guessed our last name. He was doing pretty good until he realized that there were six Melissa's in his room. This was just the beginning of how right I was on this teaching being the complete opposite of every other teacher I had prior to fourth grade. From there we spent weeks getting to know one another and the expectations of the classroom. We didn't sit in rows silently nor was our classroom still. The movement and talking aloud in the classroom was freeing. Often times it didn't even feel like school but rather a community gathering of same aged peers. The engagement and relationship building in this class was memorable. Not only did he have the unorthodox teaching behavior in means of classroom management, he also carried his own style into everything he did. He knew each student individually and set the next best goal for the student, not the grade. I can remember walking into the classroom and he looked right at me and said "Schibonski, you keep missing 7x7 on everything we do. I want you to go into the room and choose pushups or jumping jacks and say 7x7 is 49 ten times." I was in shock, how embarrassing! Except that when I entered the room every other classmate was doing the same thing with the math fact they missed. He knew which math fact each and every student needed work on. For the rest of the day during transitions he would say "find a space in the room and get busy with your math fact. You must say it ten times before you line up at the door." WOW!
Fast forward to today, as a teacher myself. I can recognize that he was doing things out of the ordinary. He was relational! Relationships mattered in his classroom not only teacher to student but also student to student. He owned his own strengths and challenges. I remember the big dictionary on his desk. If a student asked how to spell something he would day "I struggle in spelling but let's look it up together so we both can learn." after he would challenge the student to spell it verbally before he could. During transition times they would race to see who could spell that word correctly first. Imagine that: relationships and learning happening at one time. Not just learning, personalized learning!
My fourth grade teacher made each and every single student feel loved, cared for, known and important. He embarrassed individual strengths and struggles in a way that was not embarrassing or singling anyone out. The sense of community leads me to believe he had a strong belief in connection. He impacted my fourth grade year and my view on education from that year forward. The social emotional learning that I experienced in that community of fourth graders was something I was able to take with me for the rest of my K-12 journey. Now, as an educator, I can take these tidbits into my own teaching. I can embrace differences in children and parents I have in class. I realizes that the importance of listening, knowing people for who they are individually and remembering details of their life can impact relationships and that relationships are the first step before any learning can take place. I am pondering if the experience I had in fourth grade have shaped who I am as far as my strengths. One of my top five strengths is relator. This seems to be fitting as a relator seeks deep meaningful relationships with others. I am curious would I have relator in my top five strengths had I not had Mr. Bonine as my fourth grade teacher? I may never know, I can just be grateful for all that he did to make the fourth grade class the best around!
I am curious if there is a teacher you had in your educational career that may have had an impact on who you have become as an adult? In what ways might this teacher have impacted your view on education and relationships with others? I would love to hear from you in the comments or via email krismelissadenning@gmail.com
