Nov. 19: Tell someone you know how grateful you are for the work they do. Share your story here.
I am grateful for those who speak the sweet honeycomb of words. My first teaching job was in my husband's hometown, Mount Vernon, Missouri. I was nervous to interact with these rural Missouri teens whose small-town ways seemed eerily similar and still so different from my Iowa farm girl roots. On top of that was the pressure that my new coworkers were my husband's former teachers, and, well, we'll just say he wasn't the strongest student. Like most first years, mine was laden with insecure interactions with students, awkward parent-teacher conferences, and lessons that looked much better on paper. My first principal observation included the sensual poetry debacle, too, but still I trudged forward. Mr. Russ Cruzan, a quiet leader, saw hope in me. Now it should come as no surprise that I am deeply impacted by words, both spoken and written. Proverbs 16:24 says, "Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Mr. Cruzan's words were a honeycomb to this hesitant, first-year teacher. In a conversation that I'm sure he has long since forgotten, he told me that I was one of the best first-year teachers he had encountered. Those words stuck, shining light into the dark corners of my classroom on the days when a violent 7th hour student threatened to burn my f&#%@ room down or when a timid 10th grader revealed in her journal that she had been raped. His words kept me going. Now years later, I am grateful for Mr. Cruzan. In a career dripping with dropouts and low retention rates, his encouragement soothed my soul. When the opportunity came to teach dual-credit writing classes, his go-ahead gave me the courage to start my masters program which lead me to the Ozarks Writing Project. Like a good teacher, he saw the potential in me and drew it out. Mr. Cruzan believed in me in spite of (or maybe because of) my first-year bumbles. Now a superintendent in the same district, I am sure that Mr. Cruzan still leads with a quiet and firm integrity. I remember that lesson well, the power of words, and try speak the same honeycomb truth for my students.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AboutTeach. Archives
September 2020
|