From the time I was a second-grader I wanted to be a teacher. One day, my dad brought home a big white board on an easel with colored dry-erase markers that he salvaged from his work when they moved offices. My parents trash-picked some shelves where I could organize my papers and craft supplies just like my teacher in school, and somehow I acquired two old-school wooden desks with the chair attached to the side. I set up a school room in our unfinished basement, and it was my pride and joy. I used to make my poor brother (he was two years younger) sit in a desk and follow my directions while I taught him lessons on the white board (probably mimicking whatever I’d learned in school that day), and I’d hand out graded papers to him and the rest of my (invisible) students, giving them praise for their improving handwriting skills.
My passion for becoming a teacher really piqued in 5th grade. My teacher Miss Bibza is preserved in my eternal memory as a superhero. She was the light of my world that year because she created magic every day. She would dress up in costume to teach us history lessons, get us engaged in amazingly complex project-based learning (and this was 1995– way before PBL became an education buzzword!), surprise us with choreographed songs and dances with the teacher across the hall, let us play Mancala and other math games, read aloud some of the most memorable books I can ever remember reading in elementary school (Where the Red Fern Grows, The Giver, A Wrinkle in Time, and Bridge to Terabithia were a few) and end each day with a round of ‘Brain Quest’ trivia with Jolly Ranchers as rewards! (And keep in mind that she was doing this decades before The Wild Card was written!)
That year, my friends and I won the first-place prize for a toothpick bridge-design competition for which I was The Architect. My dad (an engineer) and I got so involved with this bridge design. I remember spending tons of time outside of school learning about what would strengthen our bridge and meticulously drawing my plans on graph paper. The project involved a budget, buying materials (‘hardware’=glue, ‘toothpicks’=lumber, etc.), writing checks, and keeping a log of all expenses. The role I got to play for this project did wonders for my confidence.
At the end of the year, Miss Bibza organized a 4th through 6th-grade lip-sync competition and the pinnacle of her awesomeness was her performance at this event– she dressed in a tight-fitting, fire-red devil outfit and another teacher Mr. Mraz dressed in a farmer’s outfit…they held dueling fiddles and they were absolutely captivating as they tore around the stage, lip-syncing to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”! That night, my friends and I won ‘best overall’ for our choreographed performance to Peter Pan’s “I Won’t Grow Up”, and I was literally never more proud of something in my life up to that point! Especially because I was painfully shy.
My journey into education after 5th grade was a long and bumpy one because I didn’t actually pursue education until after completing my undergrad, but Miss Bibza’s energy that year really sprouted the seed in my heart for teaching. The fact that my memories from that year almost twinkle with magic over 23 years later really proves how influential a teacher can be in a person’s life.
Keep reading about my most influential teachers!
