I wanted to be my 11th grade English teacher

It's Day 3 of Teacher Appreciation Week!

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week (May 5-9), I’m sharing a tribute to one of my own teachers each day this week instead of my usual roundup on the first Tuesday of the month. Thank you to every teacher – past, present, or future – who’s reading this. I appreciate you and the work you do.

Today’s post is an excerpt from Educating with Passion and Purpose, the book on teacher burnout that I co-authored with another teacher and leader I deeply appreciate, Meredith Matson.

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My first teacher mentor, way back before I even thought about becoming a teacher, was Ms. Leone, my eleventh grade English teacher and twelfth grade creative writing teacher.

Ms. Leone's real-world writing assignment resulted in "Cuento de Cucumber," the short story I wrote from the perspective of a cucumber after seeing a truck full of them outside my school and that my Harvard interviewer asked me to read aloud after I told her I loved writing. Ms Leone sparked the love of literature that is still with me today and showed me what it looks like to teach from that love with the goal of engendering it in your students, too.

Almost 30 years later, when I read the poem "Recuerdo" by Edna St. Vincent Millay today, I picture Ms. Leone raising her upturned fist while reading the line, "And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold." Because of Ms. Leone, I took my students back and forth on the Staten Island Ferry while we read that poem together.

As a high school student, I didn't know that I wanted to be a teacher, but I knew I wanted to be like Ms. Leone.

Ms. Leone treated us like young adults, not kids. It wasn't just that she sent us out into downtown Miami to find something to write about. It was also the kind of literature that she shared with us. In her class we read Charles Bukowski and Zora Neale Hurston, and when we read William Carlos Williams we didn't just read "The Red Wheelbarrow" like everyone else; we read "This is Just to Say," and all our minds were blown. I wanted to be a teacher who blew students' minds, too, who showed them new ways to think by giving them new things to read.

Ms. Leone's classroom enchanted me by casting a lifelong spell, and that's what I want for all learners I work with too.

Me and Ms. Leone in 2019

To Ms. Leone, and all the other teachers blowing their students’ minds each and every day, thank you.

I appreciate you.

Your turn:

• If you have 5 minutes: Share a comment about something that resonates with you. First draft thoughts are welcome!

• If you have 10 minutes: Send a note to a teacher you appreciate – a past teacher of your own or your child, a colleague, a leader, or anyone else who helps others learn. Better yet, send them a gift subscription to the Cocoon for Teacher Appreciation Week, Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day!

• If you have 30 minutes: Schedule time on my calendar to chat. What are you working on right now? It’s a free half-hour of thought partnership!

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Let’s partner!

• I help educators break through their blocks by finding the intersection of effectiveness and sustainability.

• I believe educators need to stay connected to their passion and purpose to provide all students with joyful, enchanting, empowering learning experiences–without burning out.

• I have more than 2 decades of experience as an educator with deep expertise in leadership and instructional coaching across grade bands and content areas, learner-centered professional development design and facilitation, and teacher team development.

Interested in learning more?

“This book could not have come at a better time.”

Carolyn Yaffe, Executive Director, Valley Charter Schools

Thank you for reading this issue of The Cocoon. I’ll see you tomorrow for my next Teacher Appreciation Week post and on the first Tuesday of next month for my next regular edition.

And if you’re interested in the pleasures, perils, and politics of mid-40s, post-divorce, perimenopausal, red-state dating, please visit my other Substack Red State Blue Balls. It makes a great birthday or just-because gift for yourself or someone else!