My most memorable teacher would have to be Mrs. Leverity. I was lucky enough to have her as my first and second grade teacher. She is the reason I wanted to be a teacher one day. Her compassion and love would just fill the room. I can remember on days that she was absent, the kids would just be sad and upset until she would return. The thing I remember most about her was that she knew her kids. I say this because she was able to remember the smallest little detail that you would tell her. For example, if a student came into the room on a Monday morning and told Mrs. Leverity that over the weekend they went to the beach and stayed at a hotel with a huge swimming pool and two diving boards, she would remember that. Three or four months later, when reading a story about a swimming pool, she would say something like, "it only has one diving board, so it must not be as big as the one that was at the hotel that Johnny stayed at on vacation." She was amazing.
I remember that she visited our home both years that I was her student. She came to the house and sat in our living room and had the parent-teacher conference with my mother. Which, at that time, we lived in a neighborhood that was only "white Americans" and she was a "black American." Believe it or not, she knew my sister and brother's names and even how many pets we had. She made her students feel loved and made it her business to know our business. She truly loved each and every one of her kids. She inspired me to write and dream. She would give us journals and fancy pens at the end of the school year and told us to just write our thoughts and dreams. My mother still has one of those journals.
Amazingly enough, my daughter ended up attending the very same elementary school for kindergarten. I was surprised to see that Mrs. Leverity was still teaching second grade. To this day, her memory totally shocks me. I walked into her classroom after twenty years and was expecting to say "I know you don't remember me but I was one of your students." She looked at me and said "You have grown, Justine." My husband was totally amazed. I asked her how she could possibly remember me and my name. She grabbed my hands, looked me staright in the eyes and said, "I never forget my children." I told my husband that day, if I can get half of what Mrs. Leverity gets out of being a teacher, I know I will make a difference. She impressed me twenty years ago and still to this day inspires me to do great things.
-- Justine Maver, Florida Atlantic University