My Favorite Grade School Teacher

Mrs. Giegling, my 4th-grade teacher

My parents were raised in a small town in northern Michigan but my dad decided he could get a better job in the city, so he moved my mom, younger brother and I to Royal Oak, Michigan the year I went to kindergarten. We moved back to their hometown when I was getting ready to attend 4th grade. 

I always loved school so I looked forward to my first day of school in the same large brick building that my parents had attended school. When I was assigned to Mrs. Giegling's 4th grade I had no idea that the things I would learn in that class would stay with me for all these years. Mrs. Giegling was the typical looking school teacher, very orderly and she very much expected order in her classroom.  

Typical schoolroom desk

One of our first assignments was to bring to class a large oatmeal box.  We all decorated the box with our own individual flair.  Then we were told to buy a large skein of yarn and knitting needles and bring them to class as we were all (boys and girls) going to learn to knit.  We helped each other take those skeins and one person would hold the skein apart and the other person would begin to roll it into a large ball.  We put our ball of yarn in the oatmeal box and then cut a hole in the top of the box with a long piece coming out of the hole.  Now we were all ready to learn how to knit a potholder.  Before the year was over we had also knit a pair of mittens. 

Skeins of yarn that have been rolled up in balls

My potholder looked great.  When we moved on to making the mittens, I was doing great until I got to the thumb area.  Somehow I had never quite got the hang of those small needles and had some dropped stitches in the thumb of my mittens. 

Knitting

Not my original mittens but these are the type mittens we knit.

Another thing I loved about grade school was being introduced to the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I have fond memories of reading those books on cold snowy days in northern Michigan.  I enjoyed those books so much while growing up that I bought them for my own daughters.

When the TV series came out in 1974, it ran for ten seasons.  Little House on the Prairie was an American Western drama about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s.  The main characters were Charles and Caroline Ingalls and their three daughters, Mary, Laura, and Carrie.  There were other people who lived in town, especially Mr. & Mrs. Olson, who ran the general store and their children, Nellie and Willie.  I can remember us getting so upset with spoiled Nellie Olsen or crying because something happened to someone in the Ingalls family.  It was like they were a part of our family. 

The Ingalls family

Nellie Olson

A few years ago I saw that the different seasons were on DVD, so I bought a couple years and I love watching them from the beginning.  I will probably watch the whole series again and then pass them on to my children.

Teaching is a wonderful gift and not to be taken lightly.  I have been blessed to be able to teach several years in our Bible School, as well as, at many churches, conferences, and women's meetings.  To be able to take information and impart it into another person's life with the purpose of making a difference in them is an awesome privilege.  I am always humbled when I have someone repeat to me something I shared in teaching and have them tell me how it changed their life. 

Mrs. Giegling was the right teacher for me the year I moved back to the small town of Grayling.  She helped me feel accepted and at home in her classroom.  I can still remember the clicking of those knitting needles on cold snowy days and how she was able to make our classroom feel warm and cozy. 

I am sure each of you has a special teacher that you have fond memories of and who has helped shape who you are today.  I am thankful for teachers who have the ability to leave a lasting mark on our lives and Mrs. Giegling did that in mine.