You might think it would be hard to choose a favorite day from almost three decades of rewarding teaching. Not for me.
At South Polk Elementary School in Louisiana back in the 1986-87 school year, my lesson plan had only one variance from normal items. A forty-five minute allotment said, “Scholastic Contest.” Scholastic was promoting writer Johanna Hurwitz and had thrown out a challenge for individual students or classes to write a story using her book, Aldo Applesauce, as a model.
We had enjoyed Aldo Applesauce as a read-aloud, and I knew my class was up to the challenge. We finished our required morning routines and cleared the chalkboard. I called Emily, a steady flashlight stream in a class of strobe lights, to the board to take dictation because of her perfect handwriting. A couple of stenographers were designated to make pencil copies at their desks so we could erase the board when it filled and continue our story.
The students called out ideas, building on each other’s sentences. I had to gently squelch the parent volunteer who wanted to insert grammar into their enthusiasm. There would be plenty of time for that later. My forty-five minute allotment came and went. The story became even more interesting. Then the lunch bell rang and brought a chorus of “Oh, no!”
I assured the second graders that we had the afternoon to finish and challenged them to think of more good ideas while they ate lunch and played on the playground. As they filed into the cafeteria, the parent volunteer said to me, “You know they’ll forget all about this while they are playing.” I was glad she could not read my mind and know how glad I was that it was time for her to go home.
While eating my own lunch in the teacher’s lounge with my principal, I warned her that if she decided to observe in my classroom that afternoon, we would not be doing what was in the plan book. Thankfully, Mrs. Morgan was a proponent of seizing and enjoying teachable moments.
My students returned from lunch recess full of ideas they thought of on the playground and eager to get started – as I knew they would. We finished our story, took care of the grammar, and sent it to Scholastic – and waited. Many moons later, Mrs. Morgan called on the intercom from the office saying our class had a package. We had won a set of Johanna Hurwitz books for our third place in the national contest!
I was not the only one who loved that day. Fast forward a few years when I had moved to teach junior high, and Emily was in my class again. On the first day of school, she said, “I remember being chosen to write our story in second grade because of my good handwriting.”
Fast forward a lot of years and a change of locations to South Mississippi. One of those strobe lights now introduces books to students in my neighboring town of Petal, first as a teacher of the year and now as librarian. I get to see her annually at the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival. This year I brought her the Hurwitz books. I think they are where they belong.
