Thank You!

I was just reading a post by fellow #oklaed blogger, Mindy Dennison, and was reminded of a blog that I have been thinking about writing for quite some time.

Its a thank you to the lady that set me on the path that I has led me to where I am.  My parents of course are super important, without all of the encouragement from them, well…who knows.

As teachers we can all think back to that one teacher, the one who inspired us.  The teacher that was always encouraging us to do our best.  The one who fussed at us when we halfway worked on an assignment.  The one who celebrated with us when amazing things happened.  The one who asked how it was going – and really wanted to know.  That teacher.  The one we all hope to be for all of our students.

Lu Ireton – THANK YOU!

I first had Mrs. Ireton as a sophomore in an Algebra 2 course.  I don’t recall anything that stands out too much from this year, but it was the beginning.   I was never that great at math, but in high school I came into my own – Carolyn Henke was pretty brilliant and Charles Crooks was about more than basketball (they both spoke into my life tons) – but Mrs. Ireton pulled me into her love of math.

My junior year I had Mrs. Ireton again, this time as a math analysis teacher.  Two years in a row – we were able to get to know each other better.  We had some history by now…But as it turned out, I loved this class!  In fact my most favorite unit of math to teach traces its roots back to this class – Trigonometric Identities!  Man I love those things!  We built these circle cards and wrote down all of the trig identities, simple graphs, some equalities to use…These cards were brilliant, I used mine all through the rest of high school and on into college until I accidentally sold it back to the book store in a book.  There was legitimate depression for weeks over this oversight….I loved this circle card so much, I used it when I taught my students trigonometry all of these many years later!

Senior year – Calculus – with Mrs. Ireton.  This class.  It was like living the dream most days.  I know people arch an eyebrow over calculus.  It makes for awkward introductions: Hi what do you do? High school calculus teacher! Oh…..Mrs. Ireton had such passion for this course, it was contagious and I loved every minute.  We formed such a bond with her, that our class pitched in some money and we bought her roses.  We left class to take our senior picture, and after pictures we handed the roses out.  When we got back to class, we went in single file, the first student handed her a vase and the next 24 gave her a rose.

She was brilliant and she loved us.  She is why I love Calculus and Trig.  She is why I became a math teacher.

I want to say: Thank You Mrs. Ireton for all that you did – you made an impact and had no idea!  Thank you for working so hard for us!  Thank You for speaking into the lives of young people for so many years!  Thank You!  Thank You!!  Thank You!!!

Have a teacher who impacted you??  Say thank you in the comments below…