When I think of a teacher that has made a difference in my life, one teacher jumps to mind. For first and second grade, I had the same teacher. Her name is Mrs. Tosini. I was always very close to her and while many people in the class didn’t like her and thought that she was strict, she is still my favorite teacher to date and the reason that I wanted to become an elementary teacher.
It is safe to say that I remember more about first and second grade than about the rest of elementary school put together, due in large part to her. From that time on, I have wanted to be a teacher and be like Mrs. Tosini.
Math, that’s the biggest part of what I remember. I learned a lot those 2 years about math in particular and it is then that I developed an interest in it. I would play school at home every afternoon, setting my stuffed animals and dolls up in chairs and desks. I had a chalkboard at the front of the room and used the old math book from the year before for a text. The book, I still remember, had a red cover and perforated edges so that the pages could rip out easily. In class, we didn’t use all the pages and at the end of the year, I brought the book home and began to use it in my “classroom.” I “graded” these papers and put stickers and comments on them the very same way that Mrs. Tosini put comments and stickers on my own paper. I wrote on the board and tried to emulate her writing, the curves and loops that she used.
I cut out the paper tanograms from the back of the book that were similar to the wood ones we used in class. By the end of the year, I had an entire set of materials, all math-related, to use in my class just like Mrs. Tosini used in hers.
I wanted to be a teacher. I came to American University sure of this. I had these exercises that she did in her class still in my mind, ready to use them in my own class. I remember add-a-tiles and subtract-a-tiles, an activity that involved both math facts and problem solving. Using ordinary small kitchen tiles with the numbers 0-9 written on them, there were cards with math facts that had to be filled in to get the correct answer. Some digits were given while others were left blank to be filled in with the tiles. Each tile could only be used once and therefore you would have to change the tiles around to manipulate them into all fitting and the facts making sense. That is what I remember about elementary school. I am ready to use that in my classroom. I want my class to work like hers, run fluidly.
Mrs. Tosini and I remain close and she has even helped me through tougher years in school. In third grade I returned to her because I was not getting along with my teacher and not doing well in her class. She helped me through it and helped me to do better work, and I remember the meeting and what was said. (Sorry, it is kind of my secret.) But she helped me, and helped show me what I wanted to do with my life and a start to how to do it. Mrs. Tosini has truly made a difference in my life and is a class act.
-- Liz O’Connell, American University