Grade-schoolers are so much like…..Grade-schoolers: 1950s or 2016

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by Naomi Gaede Penner in Anna Bortel Church, School Teachers

My friend Lisa Friesen Collins started out as a grade school Crossing Guard and then moved on to be an Educational Assistant for a kindergarten class. She continues to entertain us with posts on Facebook, which many of us think are blog-worthy. Here are a few:

Life as a Crossing Guard isn’t boring that’s for sure. Take away the rude drivers and I’m left with interestingly fun kiddos. I have the group of boys who run or bike as fast as they can to get to their destination; the boy who moves slower then molasses on a winters’ morning, but talks non-stop as he strolls across the street; and then the group of girls who slow down so they miss the light – so they can talk with me a bit longer. I’ve gotten attached to these kids. I love it.

Today, this little boy, probably first grade, came walking up to the corner in full cover. I said, “Wow Batman, you look awesome!” He answered, “My mom said I needed a light jacket, but this works better and I have a hat and mask!” Off he headed down the hill, bat ears flapping and cape flying. (With his mom not far behind, half embarrassed and half in hysterics!) I love this job!

Life as an Educational Assistant isn’t boring either.

Did I really just have to tell some first-grade boys, “Do not lick the monkey bar poles”? Funny – but wouldn’t have been funny had I not caught them in time.

What a fun day, making Christmas ornaments with kindergarteners. “Ms. Lisa, you can never have too much glitter!” That is so true sweetie! Nothing like glitter and glue and 12 kindergartener hands “helping” me.

File this under “Only In A Colorado School.” My daughter relayed this note-worthy exchange in her science class:

Student: “Ms. ______, have you ever looked at a marijuana leaf under a micro scope?”
Teacher: “No, can’t say that I have.”
Student: “I could bring some in from home so we could all look at it.”
Teacher: “Um, I’m not sure that’s legal so let’s not, but thanks for offering.”

My daughter to me: “Well, we all know what goes on at their house!”

And then there was the school dance:

Mrs. Collins!!!! Did you hear about the school dance party?
Yes, I did. Are you going?
Yes! Are you?
I don’t know, are you asking me to go to the dance with you?
(Silent big-eyed stare.) Um, I though you were married already cause your kinda old.

Comments to kids today:

No armpit tooting at school. I don’t care how funny it sounds, please stop.
No, the field is not full of dog poo. Those are dirt clods from lawn aeration. (Explain what lawn aeration is. Repeated this at least 25 times.)
STOP! No throwing dirt clods at each other! (Repeated this at least 25 times.)

And yet those cute, goofy, irritating, sometimes gross, kids fill my day with laughter and joy!

The above experiences are from 2015 and 2016, yet they are not that much different from Sharing Time in the kindergarten class in Valdez, Alaska, in 1954, as experienced by Anna Bortel:

“The children always surprised and delighted me with their revelations. One day, Penny shared. Her chair was next to mine, and she leaned against me, her blond curls tumbling upon her cherub face. ‘Go ahead,’ I whispered. Taking a deep breath, she asked her classmates, ‘Should three-year-olds still be wetting their pants?’ I stifled a laugh. Not a single child thought this was amusing and she and the other five-year-olds wrestled soberly with the issue; all the while she unconsciously reached over and played with the back of my hair. Then she turned to me, ‘Miss Bortel, what do you think?’ I felt the gentle spray of moisture on my face as she exhaled with each lisped word.

Another time, a boy explained that he awoke to find a longshoreman in bed with his mother. These small folks grappled with big issues, and unreservedly offered their opinions.

One fall day, a child carried a leaf to class and asked why the once green leaf was now yellow. Following a mini-lecture on frost, a boy piped up, ‘I hope Jack Frost doesn’t land on me and change my color.’ The earnest faces around me pondered that same thought.”

(Excerpt from ‘A’ is for Alaska: Teacher to the Territory, by Naomi Gaede Penner.)

What were you like as a student? How are you still like that student?

2. What were your insecurities in school and/or weakness in specific subjects?

3. What games did you play at recess?

4. Who were your friends? Did you have many or few? What kind did you choose?

5. How can you connect to your child/grandchildren/special youngsters because of your own experiences?

Note to educators and parents: the Reader’s Guides in the back of Naomi Gaede Penner’s Alaska books are perfect for book reports, grades 6 – 12.

(Published in The Country Register, Kansas, August/September 2016 issue)

Anna Bortel: A Teacher is Born

01 Sunday May 2016

Posted by Naomi Gaede Penner in Anna Bortel Church, School Teachers, Uncategorized

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Chapter One

On May 10, 1923, a warm spring day with blooming white spirea bushes and fragrant purple lilacs, Anna Marie Bortel was born to Clifford and Myrtle Crosby Bortel in Grand Rapids, Ohio, a small, quiet river town. On that day, Clifford, who worked as an exterior and interior decorator, was wallpapering in a farmhouse across the Maumee River. With his wife’s imminent delivery due date, he made an unplanned trip home for lunch in his black Model T Ford. Myrtle, tall and usually slender, was indeed heavy with child, but showed no symptoms of the grand event. Clifford hastily downed a bologna sandwich, cranked up the Ford, and sped back to wallpapering.

The wallpaper paste was barely mixed when he received a phone call. “Come home right away!” urged Myrtle. “I’ll call Dr. Drake and my mother.”

Clifford hopped into his Model T and careened into the driveway in less than the anticipated twenty minutes of driving time. As was the custom in those days, rather than rushing to the hospital, Dr. Drake made a house call, and around 3:00 PM, ushered Anna into this wonderful world.

“Her name is Anna Marie,” the new child’s mother matter-of-factly informed Dr. Drake. Grandma Anna Crosby proudly held her namesake in her arms.

After assisting in this miracle of birth, Grandma Crosby took Anna’s three-year-old brother, David, and sixteen month-old sister, Mildred, home with her to allow the new mother to regain her strength and concentrate on her newborn’s needs. Actually, Mildred, already pensive and shy, posed no problem, but David, an explosion of energy, would have depleted the new mother’s energy reserve.

*****

During these times, bread sold for 9¢ a pound and milk for 56¢ a gallon. A new Ford cost $295. Gas to run it was 22¢ a gallon. Whooping cough and tetanus vaccines came into existence; however, they must not have been widely used since later all three children contracted whooping cough.

President Harding held office and just that year he had pounded a ceremonial spike into the ground to complete the Alaskan Interior rail line. Weakened by the tour to Alaska, yet ill for only a week, the fifty-seven-year-old president shocked the nation when he died on August 2, 1923. Subsequently, Vice-President Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as President of the United States, a nation whose population had grown to 111,947,000.

*****

Living with an older brother and sister had its hazards. One day while talking on the phone, Myrtle heard a clinking sound coming from baby Anna’s mouth.

“Helen, I will need to call you back,” she said, quickly concluding her conversation. Normally a soft-spoken woman, Myrtle sternly inquired, “What’s going on here?” She then spotted the open button box. Upon investigation, she discovered that David and Millie had fed the baby, buttons.

“Anna likes them,” explained David, his brown eyes wide. Millie patted Anna’s stomach with her pudgy hands. And, so in this and other less risky ways, they enjoyed caring for their bald-headed baby sister.

When Anna was six months old, her father was offered a partnership by Mr. Long, an elderly man who owned a wallpaper and paint store in Bowling Green, a larger town about sixteen miles east of Grand Rapids. Consequently, the family left their little town with its beautiful dam and old flourmill, and purchased a home on North Prospect Street, about a mile north of the store. The Grand Rapids house was rented for $2.00 a month; later when Clifford raised the rent to $2.50, the renters moved out.

Excerpts from “’A’ is for Alaska: Teacher to the Territory” and “’A’ is for Anaktuvuk: Teacher to the Nunamiut Eskimos.”

Adventures as a Student. Adventures as an Alaska Teacher

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by Naomi Gaede Penner in School Teachers

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Big Chief wide-lined tablet. Cigar box for pencils, thick pink eraser, crayons. A new dress. A new school, with new teacher, and new classmates. Wide-eyed.

Schools used to start after Labor Day. Now they start mid-August and in some districts, there are year-around schedules. Students spent many hours in school. It’s no wonder teachers have a significant impact on their attitudes and interests. A math teacher may determine the love or hate of math. An English teacher may open unexplored frontiers through a writing assignment. A principal’s rules may keep a young person on track, or stir up rebellion in another. Here were some of my gradeschool experiences:

Miss Bortel: “Let me tell you a story!” “What if we had Pet Day?” Twinkly gray-blue eyes. Life is an adventure. I wanted to move into her Quonset hut with my blonde pig-tailed Betty doll. I helped her write her Alaska school teacher stories.

Miss Amundson: “You’ll never learn to tell time.” “You’ll never learn how to count cash.” “Your doll is ugly.” I have a fear of counting out change. I still have my Susie Lou Anna doll.

Miss Regan: Matching olive green sweater and circular skirt. High heels. Red wavy hair. Nice smile. Got me through tough days when I felt so alone, couldn’t see the chalkboard, and cried often in the bathroom stall.

Mr. Knight: Quiet, gentle, smiling. Eased the pain of school trauma the year before. ““Yes you can color when you finish your worksheet.” Linda and I designed and colored many “church pane” pictures.

These teachers left marks on my life. The first two are in ‘A’ is for Alaska: Teacher to the Territory. All four are in From Kansas Wheat Fields to Alaska Tundra: a Mennonite Family Finds Home. A Reader’s Guide in the back of each book is suitable for a student book report (grades 6-12.) If you’re a teacher, for your own pleasure, read about pioneering teachers in Alaska – no exam when you finish.

~ Who was your favorite teacher? Why? ~

(First published in the August/September 2012 issue of “The Country Register – Kansas.”)