i have no idea how many elementary schools and high schools i ve visited and worked at, first as a substitute teacher in boston, and now when i deliver desks to kids in malawi to kids who have never seen desks. it s not all a blur, there are faces and students i ll never forget. i ll never forget the seventh grader in roxbury one day who looked at me when i walked into his classroom with a full beard and long hair and called me grizzly adams, an homage i guess to the character in the tv series. that got a big laugh, including from me, one of my many weaknesses as a substitute teacher was i thought most of the jokes about me were pretty funny. i often think about the grizzly adams kid. i m sure wherever he works today, he s the funniest guy in that job and probably the
the jokes about me were pretty funny. i often think about the grizzly adams kid. i m sure wherever he works today, he s the funniest guy in that job and probably the smartest. i ll never forget him. and i ll never forget maureen. there she is on the day i met her last year. that green dress, the irish name that was so easy for me to remember. and that face made maureen instantly memorable. but what locked her in my memory was how she worked in class. her concentration never wavered, even when she was sitting on the floor, and when she was writing on the floor with her work paper on the floor. that s what teachers remember. how hard a student works. when we deliver desks to maureen s school last year, maureen was the first student to get right to work on her new desk. that green dress was her only outfit then.
that got a big laugh, including from me, one of my many weaknesses as a substitute teacher was i thought most of the jokes about me were pretty funny. i often think about the grizzly adams kid. i m sure wherever he works today, he s the funniest guy in that job and probably the smartest. i ll never forget him. and i ll never forget maureen. there she is on the day i met her last year. that green dress, the irish name that was so easy for me to remember. and that face made maureen instantly memorable. but what locked her in my memory was how she worked in class. her concentration never wavered, even when she was sitting on the floor, and when she was writing on the floor with her work paper on the floor. that s what teachers remember. how hard a student works. when we deliver desks to maureen s school last year, maureen was the first student to get right to work on her new desk.