Teacher Appreciation Week - Thank You!
Dear Colleagues,
Today is the first day of Teacher Appreciation Week (May 8 to 12, 2023)!
Let us celebrate and honor the teachers and educators that have influenced our own development throughout our lives.
Take some time and consider the Teachers that you will appreciate this week.
Here are a few of mine:
Mrs. Ham - PS 173 - Grade 4! Mrs. Ham was the first teacher who realized that I learned best when I was teaching others. She assigned me the wonderful task of helping other kids with math, reading and science. Mrs. Ham also was a wonderful coach to my parents - helping them understand their very active and curious son.
Mrs. Lynch - Stuyvesant High School - Prom Coordinator - Grade 12! Mrs. Lynch was never my classroom teacher, but she was the person I went to when I wanted to organize a prom at our all-boys science high school for the first time in 15 years. She was shocked but then agreed to let me be the prom coordinator. We had 190 students at the PROM and I learned everything about event production. Even went on to be TONY Nominated for producing The PROM on Broadway!
Dr. Richard Rehburg - Harpur College - Junior Year! Dr. Rehburg failed me for getting a low grade in Sociology. I might have passed another teacher’s class - but he was afraid to have a student get a C- and think they passed the class. I took the class again and chose Dr. Rehburg as my teacher from a selection of 5 options. Why? Because he understood the rigor of statistics and he challenged me perfectly! I visited him the day he retired decades later and thanked him for shaping my passion for research and failing me for not being ready!
Professor Rodney Napier - Sagamore Conference Center - 1978! I took a one week class from Rodney Napier on the art and skill of Facilitation. It was a deeply interpersonal and challenging workshop - pushing everyone of us to stretch our process of watching and learning how a group interacted with each other. He gave me a mental construct for what learning could be if we had a culture of trust and authenticity for collaborative learning!
Stan Werb - Friend and Business Partner - 1968 to Today! Some of our most powerful teachers are the friends and colleagues that are always pushing our curiosity and knowledge. Stan and I met at college and have been friends and business colleagues ever since. I didn’t get an MBA, instead I received a Stan’s Master of Business Strategy! He taught me how to think about business from both an impact and financial perspective. And, he told me I should become a leading expert in a field that no one cared about, yet! In 1979, I listened to him and made learning and technology my career and life passion.
Please take a few moments and use Teacher Appreciation Week to remember and acknowledge the teachers in your life. If you would like, leave a note here about them:
In any event, remember that we are all teachers. The worlds of Learning and Broadway are about storytelling that teaches. May be continue to be awesome learners and teachers. And, thanks to the people that saw Elliott as a student who was ready to learn!
Yours in learning,
Elliott Masie
MASIE Learning Foundation
MASIE Productions
www.masie.com
emasie@masie.com
Mr. Golm, my 9th Grade Algebra Teacher, South Lyon High, South Lyon Michigan, was the one and only person on the planet that really sparked my curiosity and understanding about math! It was the first time I realized math could be successfully taught!
Mr Schoenman AP English grades 10 and 12. He shamed me in 10th because I didn’t follow his rules of expository writing (start with the thesis sentence) and it burned. But I learned the principles and have always felt confident as a writer since. In 12th grade he brought in several college catalogs and said ‘what are they conveying to you about their schools? Think analytically.’ A first lesson in marketing and it changed my life. Thru this exercise I discovered a small liberal arts college (catalog was a work of the artist Corita Kent) and was exposed to the writing of philosophers, poets, great artists and (my major) social scientists. All in the Hollywood Hills. Thank you Mr Schoenman wherever you are.