SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: My Favorite Teachers in Children’s Lit

 

Today’s post is all about TEACHERS! I love teachers. I loved being a teacher (One year I taught history and science to a split class of 2nd and 3rd graders. I taught a creative writing club to elementary students for 3 or 4 years.  And I was a teacher/librarian at an elementary school for five years. It was my most favorite job ever!). My father was a teacher for over 30 years as was my father-in-law. Many of my friends are teachers. Teachers are rock stars!

There are several literary teachers that I adore and I wanted to post about them today. Here they are:

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds Vashti’s Teacher in The Dot

The woman never gets a name but she is a key component to how Vashti thinks about art. She challenges Vashti to make her mark and own it. And her encouragement gets passed on to another young artist through Vashti.

Teachers are inspiring.

 

Mrs. Granger in Frindle Frindle by Andrew Clements

At the beginning, Mrs. Granger calls Nick out for trying to distract her at the end of the day. Kids probably aren’t sure they like her at the beginning. Adults might cheer that she gets Nick with a pretty awesome consequence. This is not a soft and sweet teacher. She is tough. Her expectations for her students are high. But as the Frindle story unfolds, you start to wonder what those looks in her eyes might really mean. And at the end, you find out she was rooting for Nick all along!

Teachers see things in their students that the students don’t yet see in themselves and then try to call those things out.

Mr Terupt in Because of Mr. Terupt  Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea

Mr. Terupt is the rookie teacher for a group of fifth graders including the class clown, the genius, the kid who hates school, the mean girl, the new girl, the “fat girl,” and the outsider. These seven students share the story of their school year together with Mr. Terupt – their struggles, their triumphs, the times they grow, the times they fail, and the accident that changes things for all of them.  And this is just the first of three books where we get to watch these particular students grow. But we also get to see the impact Mr. Terupt has on them. He wants more for his students than occupying space in a classroom. He challenges them to creative projects to really cement the learning for his students. Mr. Terupt is inspiring!

Teachers are creative and innovative.

Ms. Bixby in Ms. Bixby’s Last Day Ms. Bixby's Last Day by John David Anderson

I posted about this book earlier this week here. You don’t get a lot of information about Ms. Bixby right off the bat, but as you read, you discover why she makes such an impact on her students, especially these three boys.

Teachers care about their students lives outside of the school day. 

 

Mr. Howell in Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett (Origami Yoda 4)   The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett by Tom Angleberger

If you aren’t familiar with this fun series, you should really check it out. It starts out as a series about a kids with an origami Yoda puppet that gives advice. But the series becomes so much more  when the emphasis moves to the school’s program to improve standardized test scores. In this particular book, the students (with a plethora of origami Star Trek characters) stage a rebellion against the school’s inane test prep program. I can’t say too much about Mr. Howell’s role, because that would be a big spoiler. I’ll just say this:

Teachers go to bat for their students.

Mrs. Twinkle in Chrysanthemum  Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Chrysanthemum feels special and loved. She especially likes her name. But when she gets to school, the other girls tease her for being named after a flower and for having such a long name. Poor Chrysanthemum starts to wilt at school. But when Mrs. Twinkle arrives and says how much she adores the name, how she is also named after a flower, and that she might even name her baby Chyrsanthemum, the other girls change their tune. And Chrysanthemum can bloom at school once again.

Teachers are clever, and understand group dynamics and how to diffuse difficult situations.

Do you have a favorite teacher from children’s literature?

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