Favorite Teacher

I have been very blessed throughout my educational career to have many wonderful teachers that helped positively shape my experiences as well as inspire me to become a teacher.  In this post I am going to tell you about the woman that I believe inspired me the most to become a teacher, Mrs. Emilson.


Mrs. Emilson was my Grade 4 teacher and I think she was the first to really fill me with the desire to become a teacher and with the belief that I could become someone of importance in the world.  She was and still continues to be the teacher that everyone in the school loves.  Part of what I think makes her such a wonderful teacher is her kind/caring nature but also the way that she makes every single student feel special and worthwhile.  She was never one to turn a child away because she was busy and was in a rush to complete one of her many jobs.  She would always listen to whatever ridiculous story that I was dying to tell her, not because it had any importance to her but because it was something that I cared about.  I think another thing that really helped me to connect with Mrs. Emilson was our mutual love of music.  She really helped me to become more confident with my vocal abilities and often gave me sheet music and advice because she had a music degree from the University of Manitoba.  


For our Evaluation and Assessment class in first term, we were asked to conduct an interview with a teacher to find out about their evaluation practices.  Lori was in the forefront of my mind right away for this assignment, so I sent her a facebook message and she agreed to email her responses back to me.  She was very helpful and provided thoughtful answers to all of my questions and at the end added a personal sentence just for me: "I think you will make a great teacher by the way :)".  This one sentence filled me with so much confidence and literally put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.


Since I am from a small town I still know and am in contact with Lori.  She still cons me into singing at functions whenever I go home, and always asks my parents how I am doing in school.  I have never actually told Lori how much of an impact that she made on my decision to become a teacher, but if ever she stumbles upon this blog I want to express my feelings of admiration and thankfulness that I had the opportunity to be one of your students.  I hope to emulate your best qualities in my own teaching career, and pray that I can become a wonderful teacher just like you!


"They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel." - Carol Buchner