Today’s post is all about TEACHERS! I love teachers. I loved being a teacher (One year I taught history and science to a split class of 2nd and 3rd graders. I taught a creative writing club to elementary students for 3 or 4 years. And I was a teacher/librarian at an elementary school for five years. It was my most favorite job ever!). My father was a teacher for over 30 years as was my father-in-law. Many of my friends are teachers. Teachers are rock stars!
There are several literary teachers that I adore and I wanted to post about them today. Here they are:
Vashti’s Teacher in The Dot
The woman never gets a name but she is a key component to how Vashti thinks about art. She challenges Vashti to make her mark and own it. And her encouragement gets passed on to another young artist through Vashti.
Teachers are inspiring.
Mrs. Granger in Frindle
At the beginning, Mrs. Granger calls Nick out for trying to distract her at the end of the day. Kids probably aren’t sure they like her at the beginning. Adults might cheer that she gets Nick with a pretty awesome consequence. This is not a soft and sweet teacher. She is tough. Her expectations for her students are high. But as the Frindle story unfolds, you start to wonder what those looks in her eyes might really mean. And at the end, you find out she was rooting for Nick all along!
Teachers see things in their students that the students don’t yet see in themselves and then try to call those things out.
Mr. Terupt is the rookie teacher for a group of fifth graders including the class clown, the genius, the kid who hates school, the mean girl, the new girl, the “fat girl,” and the outsider. These seven students share the story of their school year together with Mr. Terupt – their struggles, their triumphs, the times they grow, the times they fail, and the accident that changes things for all of them. And this is just the first of three books where we get to watch these particular students grow. But we also get to see the impact Mr. Terupt has on them. He wants more for his students than occupying space in a classroom. He challenges them to creative projects to really cement the learning for his students. Mr. Terupt is inspiring!
Teachers are creative and innovative.
I posted about this book earlier this week here. You don’t get a lot of information about Ms. Bixby right off the bat, but as you read, you discover why she makes such an impact on her students, especially these three boys.
Teachers care about their students lives outside of the school day.
If you aren’t familiar with this fun series, you should really check it out. It starts out as a series about a kids with an origami Yoda puppet that gives advice. But the series becomes so much more when the emphasis moves to the school’s program to improve standardized test scores. In this particular book, the students (with a plethora of origami Star Trek characters) stage a rebellion against the school’s inane test prep program. I can’t say too much about Mr. Howell’s role, because that would be a big spoiler. I’ll just say this:
Teachers go to bat for their students.
Chrysanthemum feels special and loved. She especially likes her name. But when she gets to school, the other girls tease her for being named after a flower and for having such a long name. Poor Chrysanthemum starts to wilt at school. But when Mrs. Twinkle arrives and says how much she adores the name, how she is also named after a flower, and that she might even name her baby Chyrsanthemum, the other girls change their tune. And Chrysanthemum can bloom at school once again.
Teachers are clever, and understand group dynamics and how to diffuse difficult situations.
Do you have a favorite teacher from children’s literature?
, or his illustration work on the Dav Pilkey Ricky Ricotta series ( 
is an outstanding story by Corey Rosen Schwartz. The illustrations by Dan Santat work 
, 
, and
. Lovely illustrations of Paris in this book.
, a book I would read a lot during Black History Month. It is a stirring story of a boy pursuing his right to a library card. I also like 
and 
to students.
cracks me up every time I read it. And Troy Cummings had an interesting job of illustrating such an unusual story. He did a bang up job at it! Wait until you see all the bears! I also love his work in
and 
which I think could be modeled on my life.
). His work is exquisite. If we didn’t already own three sets of the Harry Potter books, I would totally get this new set. I love the pictures!
