Teachers

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward

Emma's drawing for her parent/teacher conference folder

Today we attended five parent/teacher conferences back to back. I look forward to this time every year. I love our neighborhood elementary school and know most of the teachers there pretty well. This year all the kids have teachers that a sibling has had in the past so conference time is fun and relaxed since these teachers know our family. Two of these teachers had Eli and Jonah the year we adopted Lily and they experienced that whole process with us and they are always so interested in our family. I left the conferences with a feeling of gratitude for men and women who work so hard to bring out the best in my children. This is one of those years where all the kids have teachers who inspire.

Anna has one of my favorite teachers this year. She does a class service project every year for the Ronald McDonald house. The kids provide all the supplies for a Thanksgiving feast. They are supposed to earn money and then use it to purchase the food. Anna and her friend Natalie volunteered to bring the turkey this year and they were so excited to do it. Several years ago when Jonah had Mrs. Peterson the Ronald McDonald house was such an abstract idea to me. Since then I have spent a total of four weeks staying there while Lily and Jack had surgery in Cincinnati and now I volunteer with our ward to prepare dinner for the guests once a month. I was telling this to Mrs. Peterson and then she shared with me how she had started this project as a memorial to the mother of a boy in her class years ago. She had died of leukemia and one of her designated charities was the Ronald McDonald house. She has been doing this for years and in the process taught her students lessons that go beyond academics.

Jack's teacher has been so awesome. The first few weeks of school were hard for him. He went from an action packed summer of swimming and boating to a structured classroom. His teacher thinks he's a "special boy" and she's been so helpful to Jack. He just loves her and has become quite attached to her. She does a lot with music and Jack is so focused on learning the songs and the movements that go with them. He has grown by leaps and bounds since he started school.

Lily's teacher is the same kindergarten teacher we have had for everyone but Eli. She reported that Lily is a natural teacher and did more for one particular student in a certain situation than Mrs. Smith could have done in two hours.

Emma's teacher had Emma lead the conference and she started out with a powerpoint presentation. Emma loved telling us about her class and how she was doing.

Jonah loves school and he loves his teachers. Last year he had a rough year with a teacher he didn't love and who didn't inspire. This year his teacher has taken Jonah's writing to a whole new level and shared with us a literary essay that Jonah had written.

I left the conference with such a gratitude for teachers who work so hard and care so much about their students.