My Favorite Teacher

It's about that time of the year.  This next week signals the end of summer, where teachers get together for professional learning, and are asked to reflect on why they decided to become teachers.  One thing we are usually asked to do is to remember our favorite teacher from when we were in school. The question posed to us is, what about that teacher made them our favorite?  This reflection activity helps to remind us to be an inspiration to our students, to develop strong relationships with them, and really make the effort to show that we care about each and every one of them.

In the 9 years as an educator that I will have had the opportunity to reflect about my own favorite teacher, it has always been (and will always be) Coach Booe.  He may not even remember me now, I know I was but one of hundreds of students that he has taught and known, but I will never forget the impact he had on my life.

So what is it, you may wonder, that makes him my favorite? Who was Coach Booe?  He was my social studies teacher in 7th and the beginning of 8th grade (before I moved from Lubbock to San Antonio). 

Me in my 7th grade year book

Kevin Booe in the same year book

He made learning about Texas history enjoyable.  He had high expectations of each and every one of us. I strove to do my very best in his class because I didn't want to disappoint him. I remember there were some times when I might not have been my normally happy and upbeat self.  Maybe I just sat there zoned out.  He picked up on it and would take the time to pull me aside and ask if everything was okay.  He simply cared.  

He was a coach as well as a social studies teacher.  On top of that, he was involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA).  I was involved with this organization as well. There was just something about this educator that made it easy to see that he genuinely cared about his students.

It all sounds so simple doesn't it?  You may be thinking, that's it? That's why he's your favorite?  My answer is, yes.  He just took that extra step and made a little more effort than all of the rest of my teachers.  I can't really remember any of my other junior high teachers (aside from some of my coaches as I was in athletics).  

I was a volleyball champ!

There are only a few teachers from my entire education from Pre K through 12 grade that stand out.  Some of them were educators that had a positive influence like Coach Booe, and some were teachers that never should have been in education.  The fact that Coach Kevin Booe did so many extracurricular things already set him apart.  As an educator who has done extracurricular activities in school like Student Council, I know that doing anything extra besides your normal duties can be very time consuming.  I also know that it is the most rewarding experience and that I have developed life-long friendships with some former students and their families as a result.

When I was in 10th grade, I went back to Lubbock to visit family with my mom (as I do at least once every year).  While we were there, I thought, wouldn't it be cool if I could find Coach Booe and go say hi to him?  My mom agreed it would be pretty neat.  So, after calling my old junior high school, Atkins, and finding out that he no longer worked there, we finally found him at Coronado. I got to tell him in person the impact he'd had on my life and that I would never forget him.

Visiting Coach Booe 3 years after he was my teacher sometime during the '00-'01 year

Well, now it's been almost 20 years since I had Coach Booe as my teacher.  What impact has he had on my life now that I've had even more teachers and have gone through college as well? The answer is, there's no way to know for certain.  One important thing to note is, I am now a teacher myself.  Sometimes those influential people that you come across in your life can inspire you to follow in their footsteps.  He was a wonderful role model.  Another thing that can't be a coincidence is that I also develop strong bonds with my students and their families.  This has always been a strength of mine.  Perhaps it is because I know how important it is to develop strong relationships with students because of my interaction with Coach Booe.  

I looked him up online to see if he is still in education, and found that he is now a Principal of an elementary school in Lubbock.  That makes total sense to me.  He always had leadership potential and it makes my heart happy to know that he gets to touch so many people's lives.  I may have to go back and see him again, next time I visit Lubbock.

The most rewarding part of my job is when my students come back years later to visit and just reminisce.  Soon, I'll get to go see my first class of students from the 2008-2009 school year graduate from high school!

Some of my first year students came back to visit me 5 years after I had taught them and I had the opportunity to ask them what they remembered about our class.  One of them said when I played frisbee with them at recess and the other mentioned a read aloud I read them, The Phantom Tollbooth.  Both of those activities were examples of when we got to bond through a love of reading or just plain fun and games.   

For those educators out there, ask yourselves, what will your kids remember about you 20 years later?  Will you be their "favorite" teacher? What can you do to show you care about your students as individuals?  Remember that we only have them for a short time.  What will your impact be?