My Tribute to Mrs. Smith

First published in 2013

I think I've mentioned before that I grew up in a small All-American town. There was a small, four room school when I was little. When I was in preschool, they built a new school and I was in one of the first classes to go there. I have to say that my first years of school are a bit foggy because I was rather sickly. My earliest memories of childhood are of being in an oxygen tent for pneumonia. I think I was there for 10 days or so. At some point, I had my tonsils removed. I remember missing a ton of school in my first few years and I remember being in and out of doctor's offices.

But, at some point, my immune system finally kicked in and I have been relatively healthy since then. When I was finally able to attend school regularly, I became a true school girl. I LOVED school. I loved learning, loved reading and could whiz through a Nancy Drew book in a day (much to my family's dismay -- I was the family nerd!). And it was in elementary school that I had an amazing teacher for several years. She was one of those no-nonsense folks who had a command of her classroom. I don't remember discipline problems. I just remember learning. And spelling! Those were the good 'ole' days when spelling came from the brain and not from spell-check on a computer. When I was in 4th grade, I remember going home with a spelling contract. I had agreed to learn 15 or 20 of the words on that contract. But my Dad took one look at that contract and made me sign the contract to learn ALL of those words...25 each week. And, being the people pleaser that I am (you know, that first born thing?), I wanted to have perfect spelling tests every week for my favorite teacher, Mrs. Smith. I almost did it, but I still remember the word that kept me from a string of perfect 100 percents on all my tests. I spelled Pennsylvania wrong. I put the 'y' in the wrong place. And I bet I will never spell it incorrectly again! Funny how we remember silly stuff!

Back to my favorite elementary school teacher! We live in the same town now and once in a while we bump into each other. She wants me to call her by her first name, but I still feel like that little girl that was so intimidated by teachers. I lived in an era where teacher were respected just because. And you behaved yourself in class because that was what kids did. I teach now and I often tell my students about one of the first people (outside my family) to greatly influence me. I also have some pretty great spellers in m y classes because I demand it of them! Who I am today started when I was in elementary school. I'm a reader, a great speller and I loved to write and learn. Thank you Mrs. Smith, for helping me to love words!