The prompt for Week 41 of 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History is Teachers:
Did you have a favorite teacher when you were growing up? What class(es) did this person teach and why did he/she make an impact on your life?
I liked a lot of my teachers, but I'd have to say my favorite growing up was Mrs. Rovello, my English teacher in sixth grade at St. Francis de Sales in Houston, Texas, in 1968-69. St. Francis was unusual in that classes were organized to take advantage of a teacher's subject area expertise. The fifth and sixth grade classes, four total, were paired up, with teachers assigned to a home room (which included teaching religion), and then classes rotated for science, social studies, math, and English. We also had P.E. specialists (boys and girls) daily, and music once a week. Mrs. Rovello had a fifth grade home room (possibly my younger sister's), but taught all the English classes for grades five and six.
Besides being pretty, Mrs. Rovello was my favorite because she encouraged creative writing. This was the year I won a national essay contest and a local poetry contest. We also used the SRA cards reading program, which I loved, and I think SRA had a writing program too. No matter - Mrs. Rovello inspired a love of writing that continues to this day (probably why I love to blog!).
A little bit of searching on Ancestry.com and Google revealed that Lily Ann Rovello is now Lily Ann Cunningham, and probably an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Arts and Humanities at the University of Houston - Downtown, who teaches primarily art history courses.
I don't know if she'll ever see this, but if she does - Thank you for inspiring me!
© Amanda Pape - 2011 - click here to e-mail me.
Nice. My favorite teacher was the one who first introduced me to reading. Mrs. Wrap - my 5th grade teacher. I was not a reader until Christmas that year, when she gave me a gift - a book titled "The Girl from Johnnycake Hill". That teacher/book sure changed my life!
ReplyDeleteI remember and loved SRA, too! It was so much fun trying to race through all of the colors/levels; I think purple was the top level?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tracy and Greta! From the research done by the other blogger I linked to, I think silver was the top level - but purple/violet was second highest.
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