The Influence and Love of My First Grade Teacher

My five-year-old was reading aloud to me yesterday when she stopped herself and said, “Mama, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to read like you do.”  Relief and hope seemed to fill her when I told her, “Guess what?  You’re already ahead of me.  I didn’t even know how to read when I was your age.  When I was in school, most of us (including me) didn’t learn to read until first grade.  So you see, one day you are definitely going to be able to read as well as I can.”

Miss Pam taught me how to read.  She is the one who unlocked and opened wide that door for me—and not only for me but for probably about a thousand children.  My first grade teacher is retiring this year after forty-two years of teaching first grade.  Let me say that one more time—FORTY-TWO YEARS TEACHING FIRST GRADERS—always first graders since August of 1973.

And I bet we can count on one hand how many times Miss Pam raised her voice in those forty-two years.  You know when you’re about to experience pain, such as getting stitches or a big shot, and the nurse tells you to think calming thoughts (like thoughts of the beach)?  I could just think about Miss Pam’s voice—kind and calming.  I can still hear her reading Charlotte's Web to us at the end of the day, her voice, like gently rolling waves, rolling over little malleable hearts.  Everyone with whom I grew up knows that voice.  When I hear preaching on the balance between love and discipline, grace and law, I think of Miss Pam.  She held that balance beautifully in her voice (and in her heart too, of course).

Even though I couldn't yet read, I walked into that first-grade classroom with a good bit of six-year-old confidence because I had known Miss Pam (or she had known me) since I came out of the womb.  She was in our church family and was married to Cousin Morgan.  Since her husband and I shared the same name (that of his father as well as his great-grandfather who was my great-great grandfather Morgan Adams), I was feeling pretty good about the fact that I was going to be special to my first grade teacher right off the bat.  And that’s what every kid wants—to feel particularly noticed and loved by their teacher.  While I felt especially loved by Miss Pam every day of that whole year, I know that every little child in that classroom felt especially loved too.  That, my friends, is a spiritual gift—to be able to encourage children of every temperament and leave each of them feeling valued.

In short, Miss Pam lives the gospel day in and day out for her students.  What does it mean to live the gospel?  It means you show love, as Christ did, to a whole lot of undeserving “knuckle heads.”  Or as the Apostle Paul would explain, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘LOVE your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14 NIV, emphasis mine).

I’m sure she would shake her head in disagreement, but Miss Pam’s character gives me a precious glimpse into the character of Christ.  When I read these words in Philippians, I think of her:   “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.   In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus . . .” (Philippians 2:3-5 NIV).

Miss Pam is truly humble and joyful—not selfishly ambitious or overly concerned with herself but always genuinely interested in the other person, comfortable in her own skin and finding true contentment in loving the children to whom God has called her.  I said it back in 1988, and I’m still saying it:  “I want to be like Miss Pam when I grow up.”

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”  He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me . . .”
(Mark 9:35-37a NIV).

What Are We Doing this Summer?

Every teacher LOVES May, right?!  When I was teaching in a traditional school setting, I remember the joy of finishing grading that last stack of essays and final exams, lots of goodbye hugs to students headed off into their own summer bliss, and the feeling of freedom heightened by the spring breeze and the sun on my face.  Even though the students I teach now don’t “leave” for summer, I still have this “May optimism.” A change in the routine is coming.  We can now make time for some new things in our homeschool days.  Before my non-homeschool readers check out of this, I’d like to remind the moms that all moms are “homeschool” moms in a sense because we are all teaching our children new things, introducing them to new ideas, sparking their creativity, and engaging them in conversations.  (And by the way, we and our children retain and learn much more through conversational learning than lectures any day!  So my point is that you are, of course, teaching your children!)

So here’s our summer homeschool plan:  (For new readers, my children are ages 1, turning 4, & turning 6 this summer.)

1. Spanish: I have been thinking about this one all year.  With all the other school things we’ve been doing, we haven’t been able to squeeze it in during the regular school year, so “summer Spanish” here we come!  Macki helped me find a great deal on this curriculum Spanish for Kids: The Complete Collection that we think will be great for little ones.  (We also got the flash cards and the lesson plans.)I’m really looking forward to this because my Spanish has gotten lost in my brain files somewhere over the past twelve years.  When I spent the summer in Spain, I could carry on whole conversations with Spaniards (because of course, I wasn’t going to make it for a summer without being able to talk to people, so learning the language for conversation was a must  – haha!).  Now, it’s much like all my atrophied muscles that I once used in sports—if you don’t use it, you lose it!
2. Unit studies based on the girls choosing: I typically try to do this when we are not in our “regular” curriculum year with our homeschool program with which we are members (and sometimes then we do this too).  For example, I ask them, “Girls, what do you want to learn about next week?”  Most recently, my oldest had just seen a bird nest full of newly hatched birds, so she responded, “Baby birds.”  We went to the library and found fun storybooks as well as science books on baby birds to study.  We will watch YouTube videos about baby birdies, and we will probably try to build a bird’s nest out of pine straw (that was her idea).  (She will quickly learn that birds are much better at building nests than we are!)  She loves to draw too, so I’m sure she will be drawing pictures of birds every chance she gets.  Of course, we will be looking for birds and trying to classify them when we’re outside.  Unit studies are my girls’ favorite thing to do, and it’s so inexpensive!  (Pinterest is a huge help with this too.  You can check out my Pinterest boards to see what we did for our farm unit and igloo unit.)
3. One hour (at least) of playing outside per day: Some of this time involves directed things from this great resource Slow and Steady Get Me Ready.  This book is amazing for developing fine and gross motor skills for babies up to five-year-olds.
   
4. One hour of reading per day:  Most of the reading will involve me reading to them.  We do a mix of levels—mostly picture books.  (At the library I just learned that there's a "My First Little House on the Prairie" series for young children.  You can check it out here:  A Little Prairie House.) My oldest is a beginning reader, so she will be reading aloud to me as well as to herself during her quiet hour (a/k/a baby nap time).
5. Memory Work (this takes about five minutes): During our regular school year, we do Bible verses, poetry, and other things from our homeschool program such as Presidents, geography, books of the Bible, etc., so now we are back to focusing on our catechism and learning hymns (particularly because we go to a contemporary church where they don’t hear them often enough to know them by heart).  An added bonus of the hymns is learning new vocabulary and fun theological discussions.  (My children love this cd The Kids Hymnal: 80 Songs & Hymns.)
6. Phonics and math games: Both curricula that we used this year came with MANY games, so we will be playing these all over again for review and added help!
7. Letter writing: My girls love to send mail to people, and my oldest needs to work on her handwriting, so letter writing is my sly, coercive plan for slipping in handwriting practice!
   
   
   

I recognize that I’m a little ambitious, and I’m not planning to do all seven items every single day.  (In fact, the playing outside and the reading are the only daily ones. I alternate every other day prioritizing outside play or academics, but I try to do both.) Of course, there are many summer days that will involve other things when we won’t do any of these, but hey, it’s important to have a goal, right?!  I also have a list of things around here that need a good deep cleaning, those things all during the school year about which we say, “I’ll get to that this summer!”