My third grade teacher’s name was Mrs. Thebes. She was significant for me initially because she was the first teacher I had who was not a nun. In the end she proved more significant for other reasons.<\/p>\n
I remember that she wore only blue dresses. She must have had dozens of them; it was her favorite color. Mrs. Thebes had very definite ideas about how to teach third graders but two things particularly impacted me.<\/p>\n
First of all, she probably has something to do with the good condition of my teeth because of a story she told about her daughter. She said as a little girl her daughter brushed her teeth at least five minutes every day, even if it meant being late. This paid off as an adult with white teeth and a great smile. For some reason this story really struck me and influenced my own brushing from that day forward.<\/p>\n
The other thing is that she did not believe in lowering her vocabulary to match that of a third grade level. She used “big” words all the time – words that were way beyond us. But she always stopped, as if she knew exactly which ones they were, and said; “Who knows what that means?” Then someone would be sent to the dictionary sitting close by on the window sill. No wonder by the time I got to seventh grade I was reading at the senior high level.<\/p>\n
I never told Mrs. Thebes what she meant to me. I never saw her again after third grade because we moved, and I went to a new school. I still think of her though, especially when I wonder what impact I might be having on others that I don’t know about.<\/p>\n
Have you ever thought about who’s watching you?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My third grade teacher’s name was Mrs. Thebes. She was significant for me initially because she was the first teacher I had who was not a nun. In the end she proved more significant for other reasons. I remember that she wore only blue dresses. She must have had dozens of them; it was her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n