Meet the Teacher

Educators make lasting impacts on their students.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio via Pixel

“Will you take me down memory lane? What was your favorite thing about fourth grade?” These were questions posed by a dear friend who went back to classroom teaching this year. It wasn’t a hard one to answer because fourth grade happened to be my favorite year in elementary school.

Most people have that one teacher they can look back on and say that he or she changed their lives. And after spending almost 9,000 hours in classrooms while completing a K through 12 public education, I have several teachers that I could write about, but right now, I’m going to write about the one who actually made school enjoyable for me for the first time.

My husband thinks it’s unusual that I can remember vividly all of the elementary school teachers I ever had. It’s true. I do. And certain things like the scent of an eraser or pumpkin-spiced candle can take me back to the fall of each school year when everything was new and an entire school year stretched out interminably before me. I remember moments—especially the three times I had to write my name on the board when I wasn’t even trying to disobey (one of those times was in first grade directly after I was awarded the “Good Citizen” award). I dreaded what seemed like endless cut and paste projects. When asked what my favorite subjects were, I always replied, “Recess, lunch and P.E.” I remember wishing I could be home playing all day long with my younger brother. School was mostly an inconvenient and unwelcome disruption to my life.

And though I’d have to say all of my elementary school teachers were excellent at their craft, the one who began to help me change my view of school was my fourth grade Challenge teacher, Mrs. Baura. On the first day of class, Mrs. Baura introduced us to Bloom’s Taxonomy and the concept of “divergent thinking.” I remember that day like it was yesterday.

Throughout the year, we played mental tic-tac-toe, had spelling bees, entered the academic fair, read from Newberry Medal booklists, gave book reports, dreamed about what we would be when we grew up, and created our own books of different types of poems like the haiku.

Mrs. Baura was beautiful—I mean, really beautiful. She looked like a Barbie doll, and her husband looked like Ken. And she drove a little sports car.

And here’s one of the things she did that changed my life and view of myself. She gave me—the shyest kid in the class—the award for being the “Best Risk Taker.” Now, I don’t really know if she thought I was a risk taker, but I always thought of myself as one after that. And maybe that was the point.

Thank you, Mrs. Baura.