by Jason Byassee, May 28, 2014
Jason Byassee
May is Teacher Appreciation month. It is a good time to reach back out to teachers who influenced and blessed and loved us well. It is also a good time for our church to think about the God-given goodness of the vocation of teaching. Each week in May we’ll interview one of our teachers about their work and the ways they find God in it. I hope we’ll all learn more about the richness of the body of Christ of which we are all a part.
Anna Mills Welsh
What got you into teaching?
I have always loved children. When I was in high school, I babysat for a family with four children all under the age of five. It was a joy to watch them grow and learn each day. I learned quickly that teaching would be a fun and rewarding profession
Tell me about a teacher you admire.
We moved eight times growing up. Entering a new school at times could be a challenge. But I was blessed with wonderful teachers that helped me with my adjustment. When I moved from California to Minnesota it was difficult, but my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Hawkins, wrote me letters every few months to check in on me. I was always thrilled to see a letter in the mail from her. She went above and beyond to show me love and encouragement. I will never forget her.
How does your faith weigh into your work as a teacher?
I used to teach preschool at a church in Asheville. One of my favorite songs that we taught the children was “Fruits of the Spirit” (“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control”). I try to remember that song as I teach my students. These are all important qualities to have throughout life. Each morning as I prepare for school I try to remember to love the students as a Christian would love them.
Some days are difficult, I confess, but I try to exhibit a positive attitude for the students. I try to encourage and love the students. Each student has baggage that she or he carries into the classroom each morning. It may be that the parents argued the night before, lack of food at the house, a fight with a sibling, a sick family member . . . all these weigh on the children as much as they do on the adults.
I want to remember that when I hug or encourage, it may be the only positive action of love that they get that day. I give out silly cheers (roller coaster cheer, firecracker, superstar) when I see positive behaviors. The look on the child’s face is so priceless as they beam with pride. That is the greatest reward of teaching!
Tell me about a time when God surprised you with the goodness of your vocation.
I was a first grade teacher in a school in Atlanta that was 99% African American. I was the minority in the school. It was at that school that I learned a lot about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. What an amazing example of how a Christian should act and treat others.
My students taught me to look at the content of character and not the color of skin. I would often get pictures that the children had drawn of me. I would have brown skin and black hair. Well, I have light skin, freckles, and red hair. The students saw me as one of their own. We were a family. I know that God placed me in that setting to learn about looking at people from the inside. I now teach children from all different backgrounds. Some are affluent, some are living in poverty, some have special needs, some don’t speak English. But I try to teach them that we are all equal and can become a family that cares for one another.
Anna Mills Welsh has been a teacher for 16 years and is now a kindergarten teacher at Hardin Park School.
by Jason Byassee, May 22, 2014
Jason Byassee
May is Teacher Appreciation month. It is a good time to reach back out to teachers who influenced and blessed and loved us well. It is also a good time for our church to think about the God-given goodness of the vocation of teaching. Each week in May we’ll interview one of our teachers about their work and the ways they find God in it. I hope we’ll all learn more about the richness of the body of Christ of which we are all a part.
Nora Shoemake
What got you into teaching?
Like much in life, teaching was an unexpected path I tumbled on to. My family had recently moved to a new area and there were no available preschool openings for our then four year old daughter. Except, that is, for teachers’ kids. The preschool had a very last minute job opening and they were in desperate need of a teacher and I desperately wanted my daughter to have a preschool experience before kindergarten. We were a perfect match. That first job challenged and surprised me.
I reflect back on that new teacher and simultaneously envy her energy and cringe at her inexperience and naivety.
Tell me about a teacher you admired.
I admire teachers in general, but especially those who are unafraid to look silly, those who are constantly educating themselves, those who are willing to take risks, those who are curious, those who can admit and learn from mistakes, those who are passionate, and those who respect the dignity of their students.
How does your faith weigh into your work as a teacher?
With Colossians 3:23 as a guide (“Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for other people”) I rely on grace to work at teaching with my whole heart as unto the Lord. As a teacher in a Christian preschool, I have the privilege to pray with and for my students and to share and teach from the bible. Mostly, though, my faith opens my eyes to learn compassion, acceptance, love, forgiveness and joy from a group of four year olds.
Tell me about a time when God surprised you with the goodness of your vocation.
Not to sound trite, but I am reminded daily of the power of child-like faith. I have been humbled by the prayers of preschoolers, delighted to see God’s creation through their eyes, and saddened by the ways adults lose sight of what is truly important.
Nora Shoemake graduated from ASU with a degree in elementary education and currently teaches at Boone United Methodist Preschool. She and her husband, Ben, live in Boone with their three children.
by Jason Byassee, May 7, 2014
Jason Byassee
May is Teacher Appreciation month. It is a good time to reach back out to teachers who influenced and blessed and loved us well. It is also a good time for our church to think about the God-given goodness of the vocation of teaching. Each week in May we’ll interview one of our teachers about their work and the ways they find God in it. I hope we’ll all learn more about the richness of the body of Christ of which we are all a part.
Tracy Smith
New York Times best-selling author Pat Conroy writes
I wanted my teachers to make me smart. A great teacher is my adversary, my conqueror, commissioned to chastise me. He leaves me tame and grateful for the new language he has purloined from other kings whose granaries are filled and whose libraries are famous. He tells me that teaching is the art of theft: of knowing what to steal and from whom. Bad teachers do not touch me; the great ones never leave me. They ride with me during all my days, and I pass on to others what they have imparted to me. I exchange their handy gifts with strangers on trains, and I pretend the gifts are mine. I steal from the great teachers. And the truly wonderful thing about them is they would applaud my theft, laugh at the thought of it, realizing they had taught me their larcenous skills well.
What got you into teaching?
I always loved school. It was a safe place for me. I had excellent teachers who challenged me, loved me, nurtured me, read to me, and prepared me to think about a future that included college.
I found a sanctuary when I started school. I had access to colorful books, a clean classroom with shiny, waxed linoleum floors, and a warm meal at lunchtime. I was poor, but public education was free, and at a very early age, I somehow decided not to waste a priceless opportunity.
Rather than looking at my unfashionable clothes and hairstyle and imposing on me labels like “unfortunate” or “under-resourced,” most of my teachers saw the potential hidden inside me. My teachers challenged me to learn all that I could. Because of their encouragement and support, I received scholarships to fund my bachelor’s degree. I graduated with a B.A. degree in Secondary English Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And I became a teacher, too.
Tell me about a teacher you admired.
Sorry, I have two…
In third grade, every day before lunch, Mr. Ferguson would ask us to sit in a circle around his rocking chair, and he would read aloud to us. I have such vivid and fond memories of
Mr. Ferguson reading aloud to the class and bringing to life E.B. White’s barnyard tale of an unlikely friendship between a pig and a spider. Mr. Ferguson gave me a wonderful gift that year: love of reading. Antoine de Saint Exupery, author of The Little Prince once wrote, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” I longed for those 30 minutes, sitting at the feet of my teacher while he made stories come to life.
I was fortunate enough to have a high school English teacher who was an academic–she held a Ph.D. in English from Duke. She was a scholar who focused her work on her students’ learning. She studied our needs in order to challenge us. She was well-read and intelligent. She was the smartest person I had ever met. But somehow she made me believe I was smart, too.
I remember sitting in Dr. Eggers’s English class during my senior year of high school. I was a bit uneasy because she expected so much from me and from all my peers. She challenged us in a way that no other teacher had. I was not sure I could deliver. But she was. At that time, I didn’t even know what a Ph.D. was. No one in my family had ever even attended a university. Still, I remember thinking, “I don’t know what a Ph.D. is, but I’m going to get one someday.” In 1999, I was awarded a Ph.D. (with distinction) in Curriculum and Teaching. I returned to my high school and taught high school English with Dr. Eggers. She was my department chair, and still an inspiration, still my teacher.
In one class period per day, in one school year, her influence changed my life forever.
To be continued….
