The Legacy of a Teacher [episode 9]

What is the legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. Now if you’re a musical theater lover like me, you probably know that that is a quote from Hamilton, which is definitely one of my favorite musicals. But the reason I share that quote today is because we’re going to be talking all about the legacy of a teacher. Because the day to day of life as a teacher can feel like a lot. Sometimes you may wonder if what you’re doing is even making a difference. I mean, you know, that is like deep down. But sometimes it’s hard to see that right now, while you are in the thick of it. Especially if you’ve been teaching for the past three school years that have been part of a pandemic. So saying it’s been rough is an understatement. And many of us are just trying to make it through the next week and not even thinking about the legacy we are creating that is right in front of us. But think about this. Think about yourself at 100 years old, you know, kind of like those assignments that many of us do to have our students you know, on the 100th day of school, when you have them imagine themselves 100 years old, and what would they be and they draw a picture, and really think about it. And by this point, hundreds of people, grown adults who accomplish many things in their lives still remember you; maybe something you taught them, led them to careers that made a huge difference in the world, or helps them become a better person because of something that you taught them. Or maybe you gave them the confidence that they needed to feel like they mattered. Maybe something that you taught them led them to a career that made a huge difference, or help them to become a better person. I really dare you to think about it. Take on a moment and imagine your future self. Because right now you feel like one teacher out of many teachers in the world. But just one teacher can make a huge difference. Just like you would never say just one student, right? They are a unique individual. And so are you. And think about it, let’s say you teach for 20 years averaging about 25 students per year, that is 500 students who you are going to touch forever. And if you teach longer, that’s even more if you have a bigger class, or even if it’s a smaller number, like I said, every single student, every single teacher matters. So kind of do the math for yourself. Think about how many students you reach during your career. It’s a lot and even just one student is worth it. Because one always makes a difference. I can say that over and over, but one powerful way to illustrate this is through a story. And I love stories. And as teachers, we love stories. We love reading them. We love telling them to our students, our students love telling them to us even at random times. So storytelling is just really one of the ways we connect as humans. It’s really a great way to illustrate a point as well.

So today we’re talking about what the legacy of one teacher can do. So to illustrate this point, I am going to share a story about just one teacher named Lucille. So Lucille graduated with a teaching certificate from BYU, which is Brigham Young University in 1941. She taught first grade for a year, but then she met the love of her life Moil in 1942. In those days, you could not teach elementary school if you were married, and especially if you were pregnant, so Lucille did office work in a dental office. That’s crazy how times have changed because I love being a working mom and being able to be an educator. So I’m glad that has changed so many of us can be working moms. However, tragedy struck in 1955 when her husband unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack at the age of 35. And I just can’t imagine how hard that was. I can’t imagine being in those shoes. But now she was needing to provide for her three children. So she took extension classes for her teaching license at the University of Utah, as her teaching credentials no longer worked. She worked as a substitute teacher and once she was license, she was asked to take a permanent position in fifth grade to take over for another teacher who was pregnant who had to quit by the end of the year. And this phenomenon is still so funny to me. But she accepted this position and she stayed in the fifth grade classroom for 22 years. She continued taking classes as a lifelong learner. She took enough classes for two masters degrees. She had a passion for teaching and it was evident and I love that she was a continued lifelong learner because that really is one of our values at Wife Teacher Mommy. Lucille loved teaching US History: states and capitals were her topics. She had a large states and capitals gameboard four or five feet by two or three feet with electrical wires that could connect the state on the map to the list of capital names and the light would buzz if you got it right. Lucille always had Monarch caterpillars butterflies in her classroom the first week of school, that was just this season for the change. Her whole extended families would hunt Monarch caterpillars often and get us in and pick milkweed, the only thing they would eat, which were in a big terrarium. They would spin chrysalis’ and hang there for a week or two until the monarch butterflies would emerge and the students would go out on the playground and release the butterflies. Her students loved seeing this and still remember it to this day. She also had passion for reading. She would read aloud one chapter after lunch every day, the book The Little Leftover Witch. Lucille had a handbell on top of her China cupboard and is reminiscent of the Bella Shiva and stand on the school porch and bring to call the students at the end of lunch or recess. Lucille was famous for a multiplication table game and the handouts she would give to each student. Some of her neighbors reminisce that they remember doing it when they came to her 100th birthday celebration. She always told her grandkids be good school citizens and don’t squeak your chair. She retired from teaching in 1988. But she still continued teaching for years after she left the official classroom. Her grandkids would always remember completing worksheets and activities that she used in the classroom whenever they came to her house and said they were bored. She was always a teacher at heart and wanted to always continue to be a lifelong learner and help others to learn as well. So now that you’ve learned a little bit about Lucile and the amazing teacher that she was, I’m going to share about how this all comes together to your legacy after the break.

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Okay, so I probably left you wondering and I bet you guessed that Lucille is someone I know, which is true. Lucille Hughes is my husband’s grandma. She is now 101 and a half years old. I know isn’t that incredible? Most of us will never live to see that age and she is still living in her own home with some help at this point. But that is more recent. But what I wanted to share with you is what happened about a year and a half ago on her 100th birthday. I got to see firsthand how some of her former students were reaching out to her and telling her what a difference she made in their lives. It had been at least 34 years since she had taught any of them and her students themselves were already at least 45 or even up to 60 or 70 themselves by this point. And I’m sure these students have accomplished so many things in their days since they were in Mrs. Hughes classroom. But they remember their fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Hughes.

Here’s an example of an email she received from a student for her 100th birthday last year. “When I was at Highland Park, we started rotating classes in fifth grade. And you were my math teacher. It’s funny because I’m teaching fifth grade math this year. And I just thought of you the other day. I remember two things about your class: one the multiplication drills and to the way we always folded our papers twice the short way and twice the long way. Those drills cemented the multiplication tables in my head. And the paper folding is still the best way I’ve found to keep math work neat and organized. I pass this on to my own children and many of my own students. I know that teachers often wonder if anything they do has a lasting effect on their students. I’m here to tell you that while these two things may seem rather minor in the course of a lifetime, they were important enough that 47 years later, I still use them and they remind me of you. I think that’s quite remarkable. Have a wonderful day and Thank you again for being part of the village that made me who I am. Happy birthday. Love, Stephanie.”

Wow, when I first read that I had chills, because this student remembered 47 years later, and even took the time to write a note to her teacher. That’s how big of a difference that she made in her life. And isn’t that why we do what we do? So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to interview Lucille, my husband’s grandma, about her teaching days, partially in preparation for this podcast, but also so we could record it to have on record for our families. And she was ready for this she was excited, she was wearing her Highland Park sweatshirt, which was the school that she taught for the majority of her career. We talked for about 45 minutes. And it is a precious recording that our family will always treasure but I just want to take just a couple minutes. So that precious time and share it with you. It was such a pleasure to interview her Grandma Hughes. And I can’t wait to share a little bit of what she had to say with you. And I was just so glad we were able to do this because even though she can’t hear very well, I was able to write down the questions on a piece of paper, and she would read them because her eyesight is still great. And then she shared her valuable insights with us. So just so you’re aware of my family was around. So you might hear a little bit of noise in the background. But I still don’t think that negates the message that she has to share with all of you today. So here we go.

It was it was just real pleasant, good all the way around. And I think the gathering that I had with the other faculty members, and have the these students expressed their thanks to me for what I might have done. It was that smile, or the pebble man, or whatever it was, the recognition and togetherness that I had with him it was it would be it’s just a wonderful probation, that was self rewarding. It’s just a real worthwhile profession. It feels good about without any wishes, they could have been different you know or anything like them. We’ll talk about, I would greet them in the morning, or smile at them, you know, and have the pleasant touching gold situation, you know.

Notice how she mainly talks about the positive aspects of teaching so far. The relationships – that is really stuck out to me during our whole conversation. The final question I asked her is what she hopes that her students will remember about her.

I think that pleasant atmosphere would, would be the thing I would like the children to remember.

And we know that they do remember this from the letter that I just read. And there are so many more. And the reason that I share this with you is not just to brag about my husband’s grandma, Lucille Hughes and why she was so amazing, even though she certainly was and still is. But it’s to remind you of the big picture of your own teaching career and your own teaching story. Everyone’s path in their teaching career looks different. But the one thing that holds true for Lucile and for you, and for me and the teacher down the hall is that what we are doing makes a huge difference in the lives of the students that we reach. Teaching feels like so much right now. And of course it does, there are so many different things happening. And there’s nothing wrong with feeling overwhelmed and not enjoying every second of that time. As we talked about in the coaching calls Wife Teacher Mommy club, it’s important to feel those feelings and find ways to get through the struggles that come up. Struggles will always come up. And we have tools to help you through that. But as with everything in life teaching is 50/50. Just when you think about your life, think about it like this, the 50/50 concept: 50% of your life is positive and the other 50% is the part that’s not as good, right? And we all have that we have our struggles and that’s how we grow. But when you look back at your life with this 50/50 concept, when you look back when you are 100 or even 101 years old, you won’t be thinking about the difficult parents with a stack of papers, you needed a grade, you look back at other moments that are forever cherished in your heart. Lightbulb moments when students finally understood a concept or your favorite lessons with your class such as hands on ones like the Monarch butterflies, Lucile did, or for me that was creating a shoebox habitat with our students and seeing those light bulb moments when I was student teaching. You’ll remember that time that a student came to you in a time of need because you were someone important in their life, you’ll remember the laughs, the relationships you made with your co workers, and of course, your relationships with your students. You’ll remember that moment you felt so proud of a student when they got on stage or shared a presentation with the class and you know how much courage that took for them. And that is what your students will remember too, they will remember you and how you encourage them and you taught them, they will remember you, because you are leaving a legacy, one that is unique for you and your students. And I don’t want you to forget that. Because what you do matters. You are making a bigger difference than you know. As a teacher, what you do has a ripple effect not only on the direct students, you teach, on the people around them, and it will last for generations. Like just take a moment and think about that what you are doing is making a huge difference.

And because we appreciate you at Wife Teacher Mommy and all that you do, I have a little secret to share with you early on the podcast, I have not shared it anywhere else yet. So if you are listening to this episode live or within a short period of time after it airs. Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. And because of that, we want to give back to all of the teachers who are leaving this amazing legacy. So we are opening up our normal Wife Teacher Mommy Club, monthly workshop to anyone for free. We want all teachers to be able to come and feel inspired and ready to tackle their teacher lives. So I’d love for you to come join us on our end of your fatigue coaching call on May 10, 2022. So you can sign up at the link in the show notes. So we can connect not only on this podcast, but also on a Zoom with me and our coach Chrissy who will also be on the podcast next week. And she was also on episode three of the podcast if you’d like to listen to her right now. And I don’t know if we are going to do a free coaching call like this again. It is special for our members. Coaching has so much value normally you would pay 1000s of dollars to work with a coach. But we’ve added it as a free addition to Wife Teacher Mommy Club. So for only $29.99 a month, you can get access to all the coaching. But we want to do this for free for teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week. So I really hope we can see you there. And a reminder for members since I know many of you are here to attend that call and invite your friends because having an accountability buddy will make it so you are able to apply those tools more. And if you are a member, you will also be able to listen to those calls on the members private podcast feed. If you have not yet click on that link to subscribe to the private podcast. Every guest that I bring onto the show we do a bonus segment, every coaching call goes on there. So if you’re loving this podcast, you’re going to want that members podcast as the perfect companion to go with it. And all calls will be available for replay that way. And remember if you are listening to this episode live or years after I hit record, if this episode helped you feel inspired, please make sure to hit the subscribe button on your podcast player so you don’t miss the next episode. Because it is my goal with this podcast to continue to inspire you each week with a new episode dropping every Friday.

And last but not least, I want to just remind you that you are amazing. You are leaving a teaching legacy that is going to last and have a ripple effect into generations. What you do matters. You are enough just as you are never forget that.