September - Chalk It Up
Kari Lee Hertzberg
Oh my goodness! Is it September already? I must have dozed off and missed my summer vacation! Never mind, here come my new students. Oh, it's one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Corning, who is so gentle when she writes on me. Not at all like Mr.Hogan who likes to emphasize each point by pounding the chalk on me as hard as he can. OUCH! ( And Mrs. Corning is just as gentle with all her kids!)
Well, after 25 years on the wall, you must know that I see everything that goes on in my classroom. And when the newspapers and TV reporters try to tell you that the world is going down the drain because nobody cares for anyone anymore, I'm here to tell you that's just not true! Why, I've seen more acts of respect and kindness in just my little classroom in one year than you can imagine. If a blackboard could shed a tear, I surely would have, when Mrs. Kerlan brought in lunch every single day and slipped it into Joey's locker because she knew he didn't have one. Then there was the time Tiffany and Valerie, the two uber-popular girls, asked Amy, the new kid that year, to play with them at recess because they'd just read a book in class about being kind to a new classmate. My kidswould come back from a weekend and tell about how they had helped out an elderly neighbor, not because it was an assignment but, because the class had been talking about what it means to PAY-IT-FORWARD. I loved it when Mr. Vincent wrote those words on me… honestly, if a blackboard could get chills. I was even there at parent-teacher conferences and remember when Miss LaPine made the McDonalds feel so much better about Janeys’ grades, she said what a special little girl she was and how glad she was to have her in class. I could go on and on, but....oh oh, the bell's about to ring. Gotta go. Just remember that classrooms are like this every day and when the kids and teachers are clapping my erasers.... they're clapping for KINDNESS!
Hi there, now it's me, Kari Lee . I was a teacher for 32 years and although I had many different blackboards in all my various classrooms, I can tell you they all saw the same wonderful acts of kindness. I truly believe that we are all both teachers and students our whole lives. So remember…we don't need our own blackboards, we just need our own SedonaKind hearts.
Well, after 25 years on the wall, you must know that I see everything that goes on in my classroom. And when the newspapers and TV reporters try to tell you that the world is going down the drain because nobody cares for anyone anymore, I'm here to tell you that's just not true! Why, I've seen more acts of respect and kindness in just my little classroom in one year than you can imagine. If a blackboard could shed a tear, I surely would have, when Mrs. Kerlan brought in lunch every single day and slipped it into Joey's locker because she knew he didn't have one. Then there was the time Tiffany and Valerie, the two uber-popular girls, asked Amy, the new kid that year, to play with them at recess because they'd just read a book in class about being kind to a new classmate. My kidswould come back from a weekend and tell about how they had helped out an elderly neighbor, not because it was an assignment but, because the class had been talking about what it means to PAY-IT-FORWARD. I loved it when Mr. Vincent wrote those words on me… honestly, if a blackboard could get chills. I was even there at parent-teacher conferences and remember when Miss LaPine made the McDonalds feel so much better about Janeys’ grades, she said what a special little girl she was and how glad she was to have her in class. I could go on and on, but....oh oh, the bell's about to ring. Gotta go. Just remember that classrooms are like this every day and when the kids and teachers are clapping my erasers.... they're clapping for KINDNESS!
Hi there, now it's me, Kari Lee . I was a teacher for 32 years and although I had many different blackboards in all my various classrooms, I can tell you they all saw the same wonderful acts of kindness. I truly believe that we are all both teachers and students our whole lives. So remember…we don't need our own blackboards, we just need our own SedonaKind hearts.