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Mrs. DG, the Legend
The rumors preceded her: mean, short-tempered, rude, and liked to paddle. She was a third-grade teacher in my school and I tried to avoid her at all costs. I didn’t really have contact with her since the classrooms were self-contained and I was in first grade. Running an errand for a teacher, going to the bathroom, or being on the playground when she had playground duty were the only times I glimpsed her. Until that traumatic day. I had been sick the previous days and stayed home. When I went back to school my mother had written a note to keep me in at recess because of the chilly weather.…
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Roasted Like Corn on the Cob
I’ve decided to take a break this week. This is the second day of my retirement and I thought I would let someone else rack their brain for something to write. I didn’t have far to look, because my sister roasted me this week at a retirement party honoring the three retiring teachers in our district. She underestimates her writing and speaking skills, but she had the room of approximately 50 people laughing the entire time. I stole the speech so I could highlight her. That, and I am a sucker for self-deprecating humor. “As many of you know, Carla and I are sisters, and contrary to what she always…
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Tornado Alarm
The blasting siren traveled to my six year-old ears, reverberating in every direction inside my skull. Maggie looked to the sky, pulling a Pall Mall out of the tanned, ancient folds protecting her toothless gums and declared, “There’s a tornado com’n!” Terror filled me. I ran in high gear, next door to my two-story red sandpaper-sided house and straight to my personal fallout shelter. Sitting on bathroom scales stuffed between the pipes of our small sink and stained bathtub, I clasped my ears and sobbed, knowing I would be blown to bits. I was a dramatic child. Like “the chicken or the egg” question, I’m not sure which came first:…
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Mrs. Sharon
As I begin my last year of teaching, I am looking back on the last 25 years I have spent in the same district from which I graduated high school. There is one person I wish I could have shared the entire time with, but she is not far from my thoughts. My junior high reading teacher was one of the best teachers I ever had. I was scared to death of her those two years, though, because Mrs. Sharon demanded respect and didn’t take any bull off anyone, as she taught in what I thought was a most unconventional manner. It was really exciting to have a teacher work hard…
