153/180 Teacher Appreciation Week_2 THERE IS A SCHOOL IN THIS CITY

Day 2 of Teacher Appreciation Week focuses on the place where I learned to be a teacher and a leader.

WHITE HOUSE PLACE SONG

(To the tune of Yankee Doodle)

There is a school in this city

and Whitehouse is it's name-

We study hard and learn the rules

to each and every game-

White House is the very best...

Red- White- and Blue-

What is is our favorite school,

Yes, White House we love you!

After a year off to student teach back home in Fresno,

I got hired at a new primary center close to Koreatown.

The school focused on early literacy and grades K-2.

There was a pilot program started there called Ungraded Primary.

Students in multiage would be placed in the same classroom.

Unlike a combination or split grade class, where students were separated by grade level,

Ungraded Primary's focus was teaching all the students together as a whole learning community.

The leader of the program was Meredith Adams. 

What luck!

This amazing educator would teach me more about teaching and learning 

than any textbook or credentialing class could.

Thanks Mere...

-for opening the door to your print-rich, community building, 

child-centered, model, multiage classroom

-for Mem Fox and Leanna Trails, Rigby and Wright Group

-for showing me what shared, guided, and independent reading looks like

-for always sharing your ideas, materials, and resources unconditionally 

-for mentoring and helping me navigate an ungraded primary classroom

-for introducing me to teacher networks

-for modeling what thematic teaching should and could look like

-for inspiring me to take on student teachers, become a mentor, and opening my classroom

-for encouraging me to lead workshops and showing me how

-for hooking me up with Victor and amazing packets and resources

-for always nudging me to do more, try more, and believing I could do it

-for being a compassionate, caring, kind, and generous role model

-for supporting my family when mom was battling cancer

-for holding my hand when she passed away

-for bringing over that gigantic pizza (and food) when we were still in shock

-for continuing to support my boys and being our biggest cheerleader.

I wouldn't be half the teacher I am today if I hadn't had you to look up to!

#thankateacher #grateful #luckyme #luckyus

White House Place Primary Center was a very special place for teaching and learning.

When you help open a school,

You also get to learn and grow with that school.

It was a place where new teachers learn to be great teachers.

A place where experienced teachers learned to be better teachers.

A place that produced gifted, wonderful students, now adults.

It was where I got National Board Certified and met life-long friends.

Whitehouse is not there anymore.

Replaced by a parking lot.

But it will always hold a place in my heart.

It is where I met my group of forever friends.

It is where I taught amazing students.

It is where I learned to teach.

It is where I learned that I was meant to be a teacher.