10 on the 10th: August!

I am going to be that person and say, “I can’t believe it’s the 10th of August already!” The last couple of weeks have been sooooo slow and yet have gone quite quickly…if that can even happen. Well, it can’t really happen unless quantum something or other is involved, right? Anyhoo, Nigel got a really good report from the physical therapist Thursday which was much needed for his emotional health. As he was walking away from me today, I honestly noticed his right hip is noticeably higher than the left one! As for the weather, we have had two glorious days that feel a lot like fall is in the air. Of course, it isn’t, but a girl can wish!

This took a lot of remembering and writing! I hope you’ve joined in with one or ten rememories! Please either link up your post (and any others you’d like), comment, or email me your answers. Grab a beverage because this is a long one, and I ran out of time to put in any cutesy photos!

Without further ado…

1. Even though it was (cough, cough) a few decades ago, I can still remember the magic of climbing on the bus for the very first time.  Any time I smell that diesel fuel, I am instantly transported back to sitting on the bus.  This was back when the engines were still inside the buses, and you had to slip past the big hump where the engine was.  I loved school, had been playing school for as long as I can remember, and just plain couldn’t wait to begin school!  I didn’t go to Kindergarten as my school didn’t have it for a few more years.  We had restrooms in our classroom as well as lockers!  My little grade school, which was first through eight grades, didn’t have a cafeteria.  We ate lunch in our classrooms.  So, of course, we had jobs.  Some of them were getting the milk, the slop bucket (yep, totally gross), and the large bin to stack our used dishes in.  I didn’t mind being the milk person, but the other jobs were just disgusting!  I wasn’t reading before first grade because that just wasn’t a thing back then.  One of my favorite memories is my mom reading to me.  Again, our school didn’t have a library so the public library would regularly send out boxes of books we could “check out” to read.  I would take home those precious tomes, and Mom and I would sit at the bar.  She would read them to me, front to back, in a monotone voice.  At the time, it didn’t occur to me she wasn’t reading with expression because I was relishing the moment of being the only one with her (there were four of us) and hear the book.  I was soon reading on my own, but Mom kept reading to me.
2. I was so lucky to have the best of teachers.  That may be because I was the top student in my grade level every year.  But, I was also so passionately in love with school that I would have been thrilled with any teacher.  In fact, I had a couple who had really the reputation of being tough and mean.  I loved them!  When I was in second grade, the addition to the school was completed, and we got to move into a lovely new classroom.  The only problem with it was the eastern exposure and lack of blinds.  They hadn’t come in yet.  So, my lovely teacher, Mrs. Mink, had us create our own.  She got several lengths of butcher paper, and we drew who knows what on them.  I don’t even know how she attached them to the windows, but we weren’t blinded by the sun anymore.  I adored Mrs. Mink…I think she was one of the kindest teachers ever.  I think that opinion was held by many because the next year, Kindergarten was finally added to our school.  Mrs. Mink was to be the teacher.  Since it was only half days, and my class was large, the principal decided she would teach third grade for part of the day, and kindergarten the rest of the day.  I honestly can’t remember if I had her when she taught third grade or not.  Fourth grade also held a strange set up.  Again because of class size, my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Carroll had to teach both third and fourth grade in the same classroom.  I know many teachers do that today, but back then, we were physically set up as two different classes.  She would teach one side, give an assignment.  Then, she would switch to the other side and teach.  When we had assignments, that was our time to be quiet!  I could go through every year of grade school with a tale to tell, but I shall stop at fourth grade!
3. We had an amazing music teacher.  Mrs. Morris not only taught music to the entire school (K-8 by this time), she also had to teach home ec and gym to the girls in grades seven and eight!  She would also stage the most elaborate Christmas programs.  And, I do mean elaborate.  She would create amazing costumes out of junk!  One year, I remember she made hats out of cottage cheese containers.  Our school colors were royal blue (Blazer blue) and white so, one year, she made the toy soldiers’ hats out of that royal blue and white.  Remember, she made all these costumes herself, taught full time, and was a mom!  She truly was incredible! 
4. Skipping ahead a few years to high school.  I liked high school well enough, but it wasn’t the best of times to be melodramatic!  Because I love learning, I enjoyed every class I took.  One of the surprises was Advanced Biology when we had to dissect a cat.  Luckily, we had a hunter in our group who was used to skinning dead animals.  Once it was skinned, I could forget it was a cat.  I was fascinated by the inner workings of a body.  Also, during that same class, we had a unit of microscope studies.  I don’t really remember what all we did, but during this unit, we had to come up with a certain number of drawings of things we saw under the microscope.  There was a girl in my class who was just hilarious.  I think one of  the things that made her most hilarious was she just didn’t look the part of class clown.  She looked quite studious, in fact.  I think she may have failed or came close to failing that unit.  I will never forget two of her answers.  One of the things we had to do was list ways to eradicate insects.  She put down “fly swatter.”  Another was to submit our sketches of what we’d seen under the microscope.  Carol was a talented artist and drew the most perfect air bubble, complete with shading to give it depth!  Our teacher was not amused!
5. OK, on to college years.  I’ve mentioned before I was a non-traditional student.  I was a mom to three kids, all under the age of five (maybe even four).  I was lucky enough to attend a commuter college so nobody was getting all pal-sy with dorm parties and Greek society.  I made many friends during the four or so years I went.  Unfortunately, I didn’t remain friends with a single one.  Most of them were my age so they had lives similar to mine.  I was in an advanced composition class my first year.  I don’t remember what we had to write, but the professor had given me some critique I didn’t particularly like so I remarked, “Well, I write better than Stephen Crane.”  His response?  “Well, yes, better than anything he’s written lately!”  I also had to take music classes and lucked out on the professor I got.  We only had to learn how to play the piano with the right hand! 
6. I’m making this its own point.  I loved my art classes.  The first one was really just a basic art class.  But, we did so many different kinds of things.  We threw pots, glazed them, and fired them.  We learned how to do block engraving as well as a little dab of mosaics.  We also had to paint a large painting with acrylic paints.  I loved the pottery the most followed by the block printing.  The acrylic painting I created was just OK.  I could never figure out what was wrong with it until my brother-in-law asked who did the paint by number!  That was what was wrong with it.  It didn’t have any shading, blending or anything like that.  But, hey, I got an A!
7. Now, let’s move on to my school teaching days.  I knew, probably from the time I emerged from the womb, I would be a teacher.  I loved every moment I was truly teaching and not having to do some asinine thing required by our corporation.  I can say those things now that I’m retired!  My first full-time teaching job was at the school I had attended.  We actually built our house right across the road from it.  Seriously, it was probably only…well, I have no idea how far…but I walked to school as did the kids unless it was pouring down rain or was freezing cold.  I taught fourth grade that year and had some amazing students.  I know that two of them are doctors.  That was the same year my daughter was in fourth grade, but she was in the other section.  It was also the year I discovered nothing I’d learned in college had actually taught me how to teach!  Luckily, and without bragging, I am a natural at teaching.  I wasn’t encumbered by state standards or that kind of thing back then.  I just had to use the textbooks.  That was when I realized you don’t have to reach the end of the book to educate your students.  I was devastated when, quite near the end of the year, I was RIFd (reduction in force).  Another teacher and I had dreamed up the idea of a lower grade (excluding sixth-eight grades) readathon sleepover.  We got parents to volunteer throughout the night, fed the kids pizza for dinner, had lots of snacks, and sausage and biscuits and orange juice for breakfast the next day.  Teachers had the option to not participate, but most did.  They could also have their classes sleep in the gym or sleep in their classrooms.  Thinking back, I’m surprised at how many teachers gave up their Friday nights to do this.  I had one student who was just so freaked out by staying the night that he couldn’t get comfortable.  I tried everything to help him settle down, but, in the end, we had to call him mom.  Unfortunately, the phone rang busy for most of the night.  It seems they’d been getting prank phone calls so they left the phone off the hook.  They came extra early to pick up my lovely Joey who died his sophomore year.  I visit him every time I visit my parents.  He was a delightful young man who would have gone on to become an amazing man with a brilliant future.  Anyway, my point with this is the principal had told my friend and me we had definitely locked in being teachers there the next year.  Of course, he had no idea what was coming down the pike.  The silver lining is I discovered I loved teaching special education and went on to teach in a different school system.  That gave me distance from being too close to the school.  I would often go back over to school after dinner and work for two or three hours.  When I left my next school, I knew I wouldn’t be going back that same night!
8. My years in special education were some of the most rewarding and heartbreaking ever!  I had filled a maternity leave for a teacher who worked with students with Learning Disabilities and mild handicaps (sorry, I don’t know the lingo anymore).  I realized that was where my heart lay and started working on my Master’s in Special Education.  After losing my fourth grade job, I was offered a position in the other school system and eagerly accepted it.  Again, I discovered I knew lots about the theoretical parts of special ed, but I didn’t know much, if anything, about how to actually teach these students.  I just let my natural instincts kick in and worked hard to help my students have some successes.  One of my saddest stories was working with an eighth grader who was failing almost everything.  When I asked him if he’d even studied for his tests, he told me, “Mrs. Banks, I can study really hard and fail.  Or, I can not study and fail.”  There’s a lot of wisdom in those words.  I gradually began to understand the burden kids with learning disabilities have and became an advocate for them in my new school.  I tried as hard as I could to help general ed teachers understand these kids wanted to learn, but they learned in a different way.  I have to admit many of them still thought LD meant lazy and dumb.  Some of the brightest students I ever had were learning disabled. 
9. I worked with a young man who had a really sad background.  He was of a faith that many consider a cult, and he was very much grounded in it.  Shortly before I started working with him, his mom told him the man he’d believed to be his father wasn’t.  This young man was a very sensitive kid and was, naturally, confused, sad, and, ultimately, angry.  He was also an old soul so many of his classmates considered him just plain strange.  We would have long talks about lots of things.  One time, he asked me why my legs were so big (see…always the legs).  Another time, he asked me why I didn’t shave.  I didn’t have a mustache, but I did have peach fuzz on the side of my face.  I didn’t take offense at any of these remarks because he was genuinely curious.  He once sent me the loveliest message on Facebook, and I have it saved in my photos on my phone for those days when I need a pick me up.  He is a successful young man in New York City these days.  I believe he’s left his religion behind.
10. Wow!  I’m only now making it to being in an actual classroom!  I loved, loved, loved teaching general education, and especially fourth grade.  Fourth graders are still excited about school, think the teacher is cool, and can work independently.  They are the perfect grade level!  I don’t know what it was about teaching fourth grade in that building, but, my friends, when the bell rang, and the kids came in the classroom door, it was SHOWTIME!  I am serious!  I was on stage and loving every second!  We sang; we danced; we told dumb jokes; and we learned!  I laughed with my students, and I cried with them.  When my mom died, some of them came to the viewing.  All of them sent me cards and were so quick to gather around me when I returned.  The little boogers would always do their best to get me to tell a story because they knew it would take forever.  What they didn’t know was I was on to them! I always turned that story into the lesson.  I also kept a huge bag of Jolly Ranchers and would randomly throw them to a kid who got an answer right.  When I tell you we were a community, a family, I mean it!  I retired over 12 years ago, and I miss it every day!

Wrap it up, Marsha!

I hope you made it to the end of this rather long and plain post! I think you can probably tell I loved school. The only time I didn’t really enjoy school as a social place was during high school. I just wasn’t one of the band or choir kids who were kinda the big deal back then. Part of that was my choice. Part of it was I was also dating Nigel at the time. So, can we talk? Did you have favorite teachers? Were there any of my memories that were similar to yours? Did you enjoy one kind of school (elementary, high, or college) better than the others? Please leave a comment or two, and we can talk. I promise to respond as soon as possible.

Where you can find me:

Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style,  Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez Mireile, The Grey Brunette, and Away from the Blue as well as Deb’s World and A Fresh Cup of Coffee. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping Bag, Doused in Pink, I do deClaire, Mummabstylish, Style Splash and Elegantly Dressed and Stylish as well as the Senior Salon Pit Stop (Esme’s Salon) and Slices of Life. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend every Thursday with Melynda, Lisa, and Sue. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!

Don’t have a blog…

Don’t worry! You can always leave all or some of your answers in the comments! If you don’t want to do that, you might discover a new blog! Blog friends, if you’d rather not participate, please share this party with others so we have lots of links!

And, now, it’s your turn!

Please link up your favorite 10 on the 10th posts as well as baking, cooking, decorating, fashion, DIY! If there’s a category I’ve left out and it’s family friendly, please feel free to include it! Please do visit some of the links! If you don’t have a blog, here is your chance to find a new one! You can also drop all or some of your answers in the comments!

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