The Friday Five: School
Aug. 26th, 2013 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hillarygayleI haven't done the Friday Five in a long time, & I worked Friday, so I didn't do it then either. Technically being back in school, though, I thought it was appropriate to answer this.
What was your first day of school like?
I don't so much remember my very first day of school EVER, but I can remember this year's! It was intimidating & exhilarating at the same time. I was happy to meet so many people who wanted to do the same thing I did, and I was thrilled to meet the professors who were going to help me get there. UTHSC campus is in the middle of downtown Memphis, so it was really unlike any college campus I'd experienced before. Harding has that "Ivy League" look where campus is clearly a separate, tree-filled, park-like world separate from the town, and Arkansas State U pretty much looks like every generic state university. Memphis was humid, bustling, & busy. Somehow it made me feel important. There's a lot of character in a campus like that, not to mention the superb little restaurant only a block away from campus. The Trolley Stop Market is officially going to be my oasis during on campus weeks. We had to contend with a lot of traffic, crosswalks, & even trolleys. I found out my friend Tashina is afraid of trolleys. :) I adore them & wish I had a reason to go on one.
What was the last day you attended school like?
My best "last day" of school was probably from my accelerated BSN program in 2009. We had a small pinning ceremony to serve as our graduation, and all of our families came for that & for the reception afterward. My in-laws showed up unexpectedly to surprise me!
Have you had a teacher who really influenced you?
I credit two teachers with making me who I am academically: Patricia Hesse & Martha Senteney. Ms. Hesse is a gifted & talented teacher, and she is unlike any G/T teacher you probably have ever known. She doesn't just take learning out of the box. She takes it out of the box, then turns back around & sets the box on fire. I learned to love learning because of her. Our G/T program threw a Renaissance fair, a speakeasy, a 1920s shanty town, a hoedown. We put on plays. We rode buses to Memphis & St. Louis to see Les Miserables & Phantom of the Opera & Miss Saigon (and please remember I grew up in a rice farming town in rural Arkansas so these were Big Things). We did read-throughs of the libretto on all three. We made movies. We dressed in costume & performed as historical figures during a "Night of History". We did huge exciting things that every one of us was personally invested in & enthusiastic about. I learned that "learning" is not always sitting in a classroom or reading a book. It is living experiences & examining them to gain understanding. That high school is closed now, and with it, one of the only gifted/talented programs of its type. Most schools use AP as "G/T", and do not have separate G/T classes. It's a DAMN shame, because I know--I know in my bones--that her type of teaching is the hands-down best for many students, including myself. I am afraid that none of them will ever get it, now.
Martha Senteney was my 7th & 8th grade biology teacher. She was a super-fascinating person, too. She had a room full of aquariums, including a salt water one with sea anemones. She had lizards & snakes & spiders & so many plants that the biology room looked a little like a jungle, especially over in the corner with the sun lamp. She let us listen to Mannheim Steamroller, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, & other instrumental music I'd never heard of while we were working on things. The biggest thing she did for me, though--I often wonder if she knew it changed my life. The transition to "high school" at my old school happened in 7th grade. You moved to the high school building & got a locker & began to switch classes cold turkey, never having been exposed to such a thing. You also had to very suddenly keep up with your own due dates. It was a shock, and looking back now, it should have been clear to everyone at that point that I had ADD. I found myself entirely unable to remember dates for tests & papers. I was forgetting EVERYTHING, in a panic, & entirely without a way to organize myself. My parents were no help; my mother remembers everything naturally & she keeps my dad organized. Ms. Senteney caught me one day after class & told me "Tell your mom to buy you a day planner. The kind with a weekly calendar AND a monthly calendar." So I talked my skeptical mother into it, and brought the planner back to Ms. Senteney. She proceeded to show me exactly how to use it, and told me if I was using it in class, none of the other teachers would "get onto me" for having it out all the time. I wrote EVERYTHING in that thing, and used all her advice to develop the organizational style I have today. I went through a planner per year from age 12 to age 19, when I got my first electronic PDA, a Handspring Visor (this exact one: http://www.amazon.com/Handspring-1002E-Visor-Deluxe-Ice/dp/B00004TDMY). I have used that Visor, a Palm Tungsten, and a Palm LifeDrive (MAN did I love that thing!), before moving to the iPhone upon its release in 2007. I graduated salutatorian, have graduated cum laude from two bachelors programs, and am now pursuing a doctorate. I could never have done ANY of this without Ms. Senteney showing me how to organize my considerable brains into a thinking machine.
What was the first school you attended?
Weiner Elementary School in Weiner, Arkansas. Also the first school Ganon attended, but alas, the high school closed so Bryan doesn't teach there, & Ganon went with him to his new school in Bay, Arkansas. He's loving it (his teacher is redheaded, as he tells everyone), but I am still brokenhearted about the school.
To you, is college important?
Goodness, yes. I've been twice, Bryan's been twice, and I'm now pursuing a doctorate in nursing. I'd say we are true believers in college.
What was your first day of school like?
I don't so much remember my very first day of school EVER, but I can remember this year's! It was intimidating & exhilarating at the same time. I was happy to meet so many people who wanted to do the same thing I did, and I was thrilled to meet the professors who were going to help me get there. UTHSC campus is in the middle of downtown Memphis, so it was really unlike any college campus I'd experienced before. Harding has that "Ivy League" look where campus is clearly a separate, tree-filled, park-like world separate from the town, and Arkansas State U pretty much looks like every generic state university. Memphis was humid, bustling, & busy. Somehow it made me feel important. There's a lot of character in a campus like that, not to mention the superb little restaurant only a block away from campus. The Trolley Stop Market is officially going to be my oasis during on campus weeks. We had to contend with a lot of traffic, crosswalks, & even trolleys. I found out my friend Tashina is afraid of trolleys. :) I adore them & wish I had a reason to go on one.
What was the last day you attended school like?
My best "last day" of school was probably from my accelerated BSN program in 2009. We had a small pinning ceremony to serve as our graduation, and all of our families came for that & for the reception afterward. My in-laws showed up unexpectedly to surprise me!
Have you had a teacher who really influenced you?
I credit two teachers with making me who I am academically: Patricia Hesse & Martha Senteney. Ms. Hesse is a gifted & talented teacher, and she is unlike any G/T teacher you probably have ever known. She doesn't just take learning out of the box. She takes it out of the box, then turns back around & sets the box on fire. I learned to love learning because of her. Our G/T program threw a Renaissance fair, a speakeasy, a 1920s shanty town, a hoedown. We put on plays. We rode buses to Memphis & St. Louis to see Les Miserables & Phantom of the Opera & Miss Saigon (and please remember I grew up in a rice farming town in rural Arkansas so these were Big Things). We did read-throughs of the libretto on all three. We made movies. We dressed in costume & performed as historical figures during a "Night of History". We did huge exciting things that every one of us was personally invested in & enthusiastic about. I learned that "learning" is not always sitting in a classroom or reading a book. It is living experiences & examining them to gain understanding. That high school is closed now, and with it, one of the only gifted/talented programs of its type. Most schools use AP as "G/T", and do not have separate G/T classes. It's a DAMN shame, because I know--I know in my bones--that her type of teaching is the hands-down best for many students, including myself. I am afraid that none of them will ever get it, now.
Martha Senteney was my 7th & 8th grade biology teacher. She was a super-fascinating person, too. She had a room full of aquariums, including a salt water one with sea anemones. She had lizards & snakes & spiders & so many plants that the biology room looked a little like a jungle, especially over in the corner with the sun lamp. She let us listen to Mannheim Steamroller, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, & other instrumental music I'd never heard of while we were working on things. The biggest thing she did for me, though--I often wonder if she knew it changed my life. The transition to "high school" at my old school happened in 7th grade. You moved to the high school building & got a locker & began to switch classes cold turkey, never having been exposed to such a thing. You also had to very suddenly keep up with your own due dates. It was a shock, and looking back now, it should have been clear to everyone at that point that I had ADD. I found myself entirely unable to remember dates for tests & papers. I was forgetting EVERYTHING, in a panic, & entirely without a way to organize myself. My parents were no help; my mother remembers everything naturally & she keeps my dad organized. Ms. Senteney caught me one day after class & told me "Tell your mom to buy you a day planner. The kind with a weekly calendar AND a monthly calendar." So I talked my skeptical mother into it, and brought the planner back to Ms. Senteney. She proceeded to show me exactly how to use it, and told me if I was using it in class, none of the other teachers would "get onto me" for having it out all the time. I wrote EVERYTHING in that thing, and used all her advice to develop the organizational style I have today. I went through a planner per year from age 12 to age 19, when I got my first electronic PDA, a Handspring Visor (this exact one: http://www.amazon.com/Handspring-1002E-Visor-Deluxe-Ice/dp/B00004TDMY). I have used that Visor, a Palm Tungsten, and a Palm LifeDrive (MAN did I love that thing!), before moving to the iPhone upon its release in 2007. I graduated salutatorian, have graduated cum laude from two bachelors programs, and am now pursuing a doctorate. I could never have done ANY of this without Ms. Senteney showing me how to organize my considerable brains into a thinking machine.
What was the first school you attended?
Weiner Elementary School in Weiner, Arkansas. Also the first school Ganon attended, but alas, the high school closed so Bryan doesn't teach there, & Ganon went with him to his new school in Bay, Arkansas. He's loving it (his teacher is redheaded, as he tells everyone), but I am still brokenhearted about the school.
To you, is college important?
Goodness, yes. I've been twice, Bryan's been twice, and I'm now pursuing a doctorate in nursing. I'd say we are true believers in college.
