It’s back to school time!
Crayons sit in neat rows with untorn wrappers, the copier is fully functional, and the hallways are clean. A phenomenal staff and incredible resources are on standby, ready to make this the best school year yet.
As a teacher, I always loved the potential energy that permeated the school building at the start of a new school year. I was eager to meet my new students and to see a summer’s growth on returning faces. As a student, coming back to school was exciting for different reasons; it meant seeing my friends and haunting the teachers of classes past.
The best classroom to haunt during my own high school experience belonged to Maureen Smith.
“Mo” Smith taught English and spent countless hours behind the scenes (and the sewing machine) supporting students in every way imaginable. She was always backstage for the theatre kids, ran the dance club, organized the band, and cheered from the bleachers. In addition to the support she gave to the school, she personally gave me the strength and encouragement to be myself. She was my mentor during high school - a hero by any standards.
But I didn’t realize the full extent of her selflessness until many years later, when I was nervously standing in front of my very own classroom in fall of 2008 . And I knew that I desperately wanted to be the teacher to my students that she had been for me.
Sadly, by the start of my second year in the classroom, Mo Smith was diagnosed with leukemia, and she lost the battle on Thanksgiving 2009.
I was teaching in North Carolina at the time, but even from a distance the loss was a hard hit for my high school -- and for me. The loss made me reflect on what Mo had taught me, both in and out of the classroom. It was during this reflection that I realized: Mo was still teaching, because Mo was in my classroom. A teacher never knows where their influence stops.
Mo was in my classroom whenever I supported a student to exceed his or her own expectations. Mo was teaching through me when I encouraged my students to do the right thing. Mo was an English teacher, but her lessons in kindness and respect made frequent appearances in my math class.
Years later, I still miss this incredible woman and teacher, but it warms me to know that she will always live on through the lessons she taught me. As a new school year unfolds, I hope you can create life-long connections within your schools and classrooms by finding ways to “teach Mo” this year:
- Strive to see the best in everyone. After all, they have just as much a right to be themselves as you do.
- If you don’t know how to spell a word, look it up (otherwise you’ll look like a doofus).
- Show respect - especially to yourself.
- Do the job right the first time.
- Split your infinitives if it works for you. Some rules are made to be bent.
- There’s no substitute for good old fashioned elbow grease.
- Your actions should back up the words that come out of your mouth.
- Take good care of your pets.
- Don’t whine. No one likes it and it gets in the way of a job well done.
- Love what you’re doing, who you’re doing it with, and have fun doing it.
Teachers, principals, and administrators: I have no doubt you will make this your best year ever. Even when the shininess of the new school year has worn off, the paper has run low and the crayon wrappers are torn, you will persevere. You will continue to impact the classrooms of today and tomorrow in ways you never imagined. As an educator, you’ll never know where your influence stops.
Photos:
Mo Smith and me (in high school) after band practice circa fall 2003.
A collage I made with my students for Mo to keep by her bedside when in hospice
