http://wosu.org/2012/allsides/stories-about-teachersnational-day-of-listening/ All Sides with Ann Fisher is a daily talk show produced by WOSU Public Media that touches on all sides of the issues and events that shape life in central Ohio. Sun, 12 May 2013 07:38:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://wosu.org/2012/allsides/stories-about-teachersnational-day-of-listening/#comment-303 Mark Lane Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:34:00 +0000 http://wosu.org/2012/allsides/?p=15949#comment-303 In 1970 I was in the 6th grade at Longfellow grade school in Toledo. My teacher that year was Miss Glennon and she did in fact have a huge impact on my life. I am sharing just one of the stories but there were many life lessons learned that year.
 
One day we were in the school yard and were getting ready to play kickball. I was picked as one of the captains which was not unusual. It was my job to select the members of the team. Miss Glennon pulled me aside before I chose and asked me to pick the kids that didn’t normally get picked. This horrified me and I asked her why I would do such a thing. She told me that I would always be on the sports teams and would always have the cheers of the crowd but these kids just wanted to play kickball in gym class. She told me to look around and see that no cameras were around so it would be OK. I did what she said and we got our butts kicked but we had a blast and we cheered each other on.
 
When I got to high school I was in the same situation in gym class for a game of flag football. I picked my team just the way I had in 6th grade. My teammates thought that I was nuts. “We’re gonna get creamed!” they said. So I explained that we were going to change the rules. Every time the other team got the ball we let them score on the first play. That meant that we’d get the ball right back and I’d throw four straight passes to these guys who had never had a pass thrown their way before. Each time that they’d catch one it was a huge celebration. When we turned the ball over we’d let the other team score on their first play and we’d get the ball right back again. The coach pulled me aside and asked me what in the world I was doing. I explained about my 6th grade teacher and he smiled and let us play on. To this day, those guys still talk about how we turned the tables on the jocks. By the way, I was one of the jocks, I played offensive tackle on the varsity football team. But on this team I was the quarterback so it had its advantages also. She taught me more than what the lesson plan asked her to teach me and I owe her a huge debt. I took my future wife back to my grade school to introduce her to my teacher and to thank her for what she had done for me.
  Tony Lane Maumee, Ohio

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