Teacher Extraordinaire! 教师非凡

Where in the World is D Today?

Trying to find a humble way to say I'm the GREATEST TEACHER EVER! :)



The Greatest Teacher Ever?! OK, that may be a little bit of a stretch, but that's how I felt when the flowers were explained to me. "Flowers?!", you say. Let me back up for those who haven't read the blog the last few days......

This past Wednesday was the 6th Grade Graduation. I am a natural High School teacher. Now, that I am teacher Elementary School, it takes learning a different thought process. (Since I'm not much more mature than 11 year old kids it wasn't too great of a leap. HA!)

I've only been teaching here for 5 months. So I never really expected to make the connections I did. Nor did I expect the kids to connect with me the way some did. I hoped for it, but honestly didn't expect it. Well,.... with some of the kids I got exactly what I wanted... to care for them and for them to care for me back.

At the end of the ceremony a couple of boys brought me some flowers. Thinking like a westerner, I figured the boys parents gave them some flowers to celebrate the graduation and then gave them to me because the are 11 year old boys and don't want to be caring flowers around they got from their mom. I asked teacher about it on Thursday when she explained to me I had it all wrong. They asked the parents to buy flowers specifically for them to give to ME! Say it with me people.. "AWESOME" A 6th grade boy would NEVER give his male teacher flowers in the U.S. I am still smiling!

So am I THE greatest teacher EVER? That is certainly up for debate. But I definitely feels like it.



On a deeper more reflective note. I wish I could share all of this with my Grand Mothers. I often think of them at moments like this. They both were SO VERY PROUD of me when I graduated, because I was a TEACHER! For those of you who appreciate history, at the time when my grandmothers were born, the early 1900's, and grew up in a very racist and segregated America, the most respected Black man was either the Pastor or the Teacher. So you see, for their grandson to become a teacher was a big deal to them, and rightfully so. I can remember one time I went to visit my Grandmother Johnson and she called her friends in the neighborhood, "My Grandson the Teacher is here to visit me!". A few minutes later her house had 4-5 of these little old ladies from my grandma's generation show up. She was so proud and so were those little old ladies. The had the same story growing up as Grandma Johnson. At times like these, I miss my Grandmothers. They were special ladies. I know that they would be especially proud of me now.