Three teachers who made a difference

Yesterday reminded me once again of the three teachers who made lasting, positive impressions on me during my school years.

Two of those were high school teachers. I had Miss Cochran for several different classes in high school, several typing classes, an office machines class, and sophomore English. She was a favorite teacher. Her office classes were challenging; her English class was not. In fact, the period before English, I would often go to a friend's house and drink screwdrivers. IF I made it back to school in time for English, I would often sleep right through the class. By the middle of the semester, I was failing. Our final test that semester was on The Taming of the Shrew. I never did read the book, but by skipping drinks in the morning, I was able to catch enough of the class discussion to get an A on the final. I ended up with a B in that class. Even at the time, I found it pretty pathetic, but that was the kind of high school I went to. What I got away with wasn't unusual. I probably just liked that she never woke me up. But that's not why I liked her.

Her office classes were good. She enjoyed teaching these. Miss Cochran had a very pleasant personality and never seemed bothered by my attempts to annoy her. I took the many skills I learned in her class and really used them in my life. I was a legal secretary for 15 years. I was good at it, it came easily to me, and I worked for a very well known local attorney, and later for a large, prestigious law firm in Denver. I give a lot of credit for that to Miss Cochran, one of the few teachers who was able to keep me engaged and interested in school (just not in Shakespeare).

Miss Long was my junior English teacher. It was the only "advanced" class I ever made an effort to get into. I started out in the "regular" English class for two weeks, dying of boredom as the class practiced reading out loud--seriously--with a teacher who purportedly would get high with kids outside of school. I considered "boring" classes to be a good thing, but I knew I could never sit through this for any length of time. It was a huge change for me to be in Miss Long's class. All the other kids were pretty nerdy, and I knew they didn't think I fit in.

In Miss Long's class, we studied slightly more interesting things like Latin word origins. She kept me accountable--something that no other teacher ever did in four years of high school. The few times I tried to cut her class, she sent me to the office with a "referral." This wasn't "good" at all in my opinion. All of my other teachers never did a thing if I didn't show up. No one cared. Miss Long did, in her own way. Even then, it was good to have a teacher be at least a little demanding. I didn't actually like *her,* but I definitely had a lot of respect for her, and I still appreciate that to this day. I wish more teachers had been like her.

Mrs. Ciletti was my very favorite teacher. I had her for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. It was a different sort of class than the rest of our school. It was a split class, i.e., half 3rd grade, half 4th grade, and we did that for three years. For the most part, the kids in the class remained the same. They were the kids that could work better in a situation like that, kids who didn't need so much hand holding, kids who could work well on their own when necessary. For the most part, she taught us two totally different curriculums. As I teach my own kids now, I'm amazed at how she did this. I remember the oodles of "fun" things we did--spelling bees, timed times tables, a couple of plays. I remember taking the monthly Morrison-McCall spelling assessments that *I* currently use with my own kids. We went on some really cool field trips: a migrant farm worker camp, stopping to see the San Andreas Fault; a couple of old California Missions; an overnight field trip to Gold Country, including a stop at the state capitol. I remember the hushed reverence of viewing then-Governor Reagan's famous Jelly Belly jar on his desk--although he was out that day. Looking back now, I find it interesting that Mrs. Ciletti's two kids attended private school. They came in our classroom often enough it seemed; they were our ages and fit right in. I took it all for granted at the time, but how amazing to have one teacher for three consecutive years. Not only did we know her and feel right at home in her class, but she knew US.

A couple of years ago, I was able to track her down and tell her how much I appreciated her. Isn't that one of the goals of a teacher, to make a difference? She absolutely made a difference for me, and I KNOW she made a difference for so many other kids. I can't even imagine the true impact that being in her class for three years has made upon my life.