Thanks for getting this terrific discussion going.

I wanted to make sure everyone knew about this terrific new site - My Teacher My Hero:http://myteachermyhero.com/They're collecting stories of individuals' favorite stories and sharing them via their website, Face Book, Twitter, etc.  They're also proactively collecting videos from a whole host of prominent leaders, such as;

- Jonathan Reckford, Habitat for Humanity

- Sue Naegle, HBO

- Sean Paul, entertainer

- Sanford Weil, Citigroup

- Robert Rubin, former Sec. of the Treasury

- Luis Ubinas, Ford Fdn.

- Alice in Chains, rock band

- Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of LA

- Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Co.

Definitely worth a look-see.

And I can't help but make a little plug for the founder of my organization - the Education Equality Project (www.edequality.org) - and Chancellor of the NYC Public Schools (and big fan of HSG I might add!), Joel Klein.  His video about his science teacher from Astoria, Queens is well worth checking out - http://myteachermyhero.com/story/57/us/ny/astoria/joel-klein/.

Thanks, Ellen

_________________
Ellen Winn |Director |Education Equality Project
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Email: ellenwinn@educationequalityproject.org
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I was what you could consider a challenging elementary and middle school student. I had terrible grades, I never did my homework, and barely paid attention in class but somehow I always coasted by.  I recall often being put in remedial programs like resource room, reading class, etc. to help improve my grades and often undergoing intelligence testing with the school psychologist. As a little kid, I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but as an adult I understand now that educators could not figure out how I could have an above average IQ but do so poorly in class, so their solution was to stick me in every remedial program they had. They even put me into ESL after finding out that my mother was from Italy, yet the only language I could speak was english. It wasn't until my last year in middle school that a resource room teacher figured it out: I was just bored and undisciplined. By 8th grade, I was completely disconnected from what was going on in the classroom because I was secretly reading novels instead. She caught me one day and rather than punish me like my other teachers did for not paying attention, she brought me to the library with the high school reading lists and helped me pick out a number of books that most of my teachers at the time considered way beyond my reading level. We made it our goal for that year to get through as many of the books as possible, and I don't remember if we ever reached that goal, but I'll never forget Mrs. Haff for not treating me like an idiot like everyone else did and actually challenging me. It's no wonder to me, that my grades and interest in school significantly improved the next year when I entered high school. I started in 9th grade in the slowest class track and by senior year was taking AP classes, much to the astonishment of my peers who recognized me from elementary and middle school as the dumb kid. I feel strongly that Mrs. Haff's actions developed an intellectual curiosity and love of learning that is still with me to this day. Sometimes all a kid needs is for someone to believe in them.  

I was motivated to be a teacher ironically by a terrible teacher I had in the sixth grade.  Her name was Mrs. Gross (seriously, not kidding--should have been my first inkling...) and she had us all write a story about any animal we wanted to.  So..I wrote a story about a purple penguin...that was me..loving creative writing and since she didn't say it had to be a non fiction story, why not?  When I got the story back, it was FILLED with bright red pen marks all over the paper, and on the top it said.. "There is no such thing as a purple penguin..please don't write such ridiculous stories in my class."  She then proceeded to tear about just about every sentence in the story...with her bright red pen.. well.. as you can imagine,that was it for me for creative writing. I became a quieter student, and never took risks in school, writing etc...

Then in High School, I had Mr. Bain, for western civ, and he changed my entire view of teaching around.  First, he was kind, smart, funny, and never ever "preached" to us, instead he held real discussions, made us think and then, to my shock, asked our opinions, and constantly made us feel like our opinion mattered and counted.  What a change... He enjoyed teaching, you could see it in his eyes, his smile and the joy in which he taught us about history.

Pretty much from that time on, I knew that teachers like Mrs. Gross, should not be in the classroom, and that was the clincher for me.  I love every day  of my teaching (yes, of course there are many days when I could pull my hair out!) but honestly, if my students come out with nothing else but the love of learning then I have honored Mr. Bain and all the teachers out there that inspire, encourage and give their students the confidence to take risks, and enjoy the gifts of reading and wriitng. By the way, I never ever use red pen in my classroom!