Thank you, Mrs. Meiselas!

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and I have been thinking about all the teachers that instilled in me a lifelong love of learning and inspired me to become a teacher. In the 4th grade Mrs. Rose Meiselas was my typing teacher. Although that was over 30 years ago I can still remember almost everything about her. How she always wore matching polyester pantsuits and how her hair was really big with lots of hairspray. I can still see the many age spots on her hands as she showed us the correct way to position our fingers on the asdf and jkl; keys of the typewriter. However, what I remember the most about her was how she stood up for me after an incident that happened one day after school.

I was walking home and decided to cut through the schoolyard. Three older boys cornered me and threatened to……well let’s just say they didn’t have good things in mind. Not sure if they were joking or not I ran away hysterically to the principal’s office and Mrs. Meiselas was there. When I told the principal what happened the first thing he asked me was why did I walk through the schoolyard. It was then that Mrs. Meiselas interrupted his insensitive questioning and said, “What difference does that make?” She then insisted that he called my parents to come and get me and she also called the parents of the boys who were involved. She was my advocate!

From that day on she always took a special interest in me. I think she knew that I needed something to boost my self-confidence so she made me her special monitor and I helped her during my lunch and recess times. Even after I graduated and went on to middle school I kept in contact with her and visited her often. She was a compassionate and dedicated teacher who not only cared about her student’s academic success but also how they succeeded socially. I knew I wanted to become that kind of teacher!

A few years ago I was talking to a colleague that is about 17 years older than me and we found out that we were both originally from the same state and went to the same elementary school. What was even more amazing was that Mrs. Meiselas had also inspired her to become a teacher! Wow! All I can say is I hope that I can make a difference in my students lives the way she made a difference in hers!