Who was your favorite teacher?

I have had many teachers that made an impact in my life, ranging from elementary school all the way up to my current masters program.  Each one has added something to how I learned, not necessarily what I learned.  Since I am planning on teaching in an elementary school setting I thought that I would talk about my favorite elementary school teacher, Mr. Walsh, my sixth grade teacher.

My elementary school in Wyoming was a Kindergarten through sixth grade school so I have always thought of the sixth grade as elementary level.  Here in Colorado, the sixth grade is part of middle school, but my fond memories of Mr. Walsh as an elementary teacher remains for me.  Mr. Walsh was a short, grumpy sort of man that always talked in a gravelly voice and would hold up a finger at you until he was ready to answer your question.  Sounds sweet doesn’t he.  So why, might you ask, was he my favorite teacher?  Because when he was ready he really listened.  You could ask your question and he would answer it, sometimes with another leading question.  Something I remember so vividly about Mr. Walsh was his skill as an amazing listener.  I always felt like he truly heard me, not just the questions, but any time.  

He was also a master of giving us choices in our learning.  One specific project I remember was our “We Didn’t Start the Fire” research project.  He often played music in our class, but his favorite song without a doubt was We didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel.  He even had the lyrics up on the wall.  For one research project we had to choose a lyric from the song to research.  If you haven’t heard the song, it recaps major historical events in a catchy succession.  You can check out the video below  Looking back, it was a brilliant assignment.  He also gave us choices on what math assignments to do and let us go ahead if we were able.  I know now that he was great at differentiation, something that made a big impact on me.  He made me feel like I was in control of my learning and motivated to learn.

I have often thought back to that class and have modeled some of how I teach on Mr. Walsh.  I may not have the gravel voice or love that song quite as much, but I plan on giving my students the opportunity to choose and above all else be the person listening when they need it.