Question of the Day - Thank you To My Teachers

Happy Friday Everyone!

Yesterday I talked a bit about habits and today I want to start by sharing one I do each morning.  Every day when I get up, I ask my Alexa device, "Alexa, what's the question of the day?"  For those that have an Alexa, this is a fun skill that you should try.  Each morning I get a different question from several different categories...arts and entertainment, history, science, or literature.  I love challenging my brain each morning with quirky questions.  I'd say I get about 75% of the questions correct, and usually, when I don't get them correct, it's because I didn't go with my first instinct or I've narrowed it down to two logical choices and I just pick incorrectly.

This morning the first question was a literature question.  It was a question about who ordered the Trojan Horse to be placed outside the gates of Troy during the end of the Trojan War.  The answer was Odysseus.  Got that one right!  Thanks, Mr. Varrachoni, (9th-grade literature class).  Because I got that correct, I got a bonus question.  The bonus question was history-based.  It asked the name of the anti-foreign uprising in China between 1899-1901.  This one was a bit harder, but I reached all the way back to 10th grade, my Russian-Asian history class, and my teacher Mr. Pearo.  The two logical choices I narrowed it down to were:  The Velvet Rebellion or the Boxer Rebellion.  I filed through the memory banks and remembered the discussion of the Boxer Rebellion and so made it my choice.  Right Again!  I actually sent a little out loud thank you up to Mr. Pearo, who recently passed away in March.  

The point of this post is not to toot my own horn about how much random knowledge is locked-up in my little brain, but it is to remind you that your teachers are making a difference in your life that will be long-lasting.  Will you remember every shred of knowledge they are teaching you?  Probably not.  Will you use everything you are learning now in your later years?  Maybe not, but hey, I never thought I'd have to use math in my adult life - who knew way back then that I'd be "teaching" it to my kids in 2020!  The point is that what you are learning right now is helping create a well rounded capable brain that you can use for success in your future.  Knowledge is power, and the more knowledge you gain in your formative years (now and through high-school) that better equipped you will be to make good decisions about your future. The more knowledge you have, the more doors that will be open to you.  

So please do what I did today, and thank a teacher, for all the time and energy they are putting into making you a better person!  

Many of my teachers have retired or passed away but here are my thanks to them...

Thank you Mrs. Hammond for never making me feel less than, even though I was a terrible speller and a slow reader.  The time you put into helping me improve paid dividends.  

Thank you Mrs. Donoghue for teaching me to write a quality paragraph and a coherent writing piece in 7th and 8th grades.

Thank you Sr. Joanne for teaching me the parts of speech through sentence diagraming (even though I hated it!).

Thank you Ms. Woolsey for being the best Spanish teacher and for creating an environment where we felt like a family and were excited to learn!  

Thank you, Mr. Pearo and Mr. Hulburd, for bringing history to life and for reminding me that those who don't learn from it are doomed to repeat it!  

Thank you to my 9th-grade choral teacher - I can't remember his name - who chose music from Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera and allowed us to sing with those senior boys (cough, Matt Gieger, cough), who we all loved! 

Thank you, Sisters. Lucy and Lucille for helping me find success in math!  You stuck with me and believed in me, and though it was never my favorite, I left high school successful in Mathematics.  

Thank you to my World Religions teacher, who's name I also forget, but who taught us important lessons about other cultures and faiths and reminded us that tolerance and understanding were important factors in creating a more peaceful world.  

Thank you, Doc Dengler, for always allowing us to eat our breakfast in physics class senior year after early morning basketball practices, and for always grading on a curve ensuring kids like me who were always confused about physics passed your class anyway!  

If you have a teacher that has helped you in some way, don't wait until you're 43 like me to thank them for all they do!  

Have a great weekend everyone!

Be Well,

Mrs. Hempey