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Every teacher wants to make a difference in her students’ lives.  I am no exception.  I want to make a difference!  I love “teacher” movies, “teacher” books, and you guessed it–“teacher” picture books!  You know the ones that chronicle how the teacher comes alongside her students and their whole world changes :).

One inspirational storyteller is Patricia Polacco.  I love that she tells real stories from her life experience.

In her story, Mr. Wayne’s Masterpiece, Patricia Polacco tells of her own experience as a student overcoming the fear of speaking in front of an audience.

What happens?
Her English teacher Mr. Tranchina recognizes her writing talent and sees her potential.  He also sees her fear of public speaking.  He gently introduces Patricia to the drama teacher, Mr. Wayne, who invites her to help out with the winter play.

As the story unfolds, Mr. Wayne includes Patricia in the workshops and continues to give her more and more opportunities to blossom.  Because of a turn of events, Patricia winds up overcoming her fear, acting as the star role, and discovering her hidden talent.  I love the line “I was on fire,” as she described her acting debut.  It shows her self-confidence and the pure joy she felt while acting.

I also love the title.  It is a play on words–they students are acting out a play Mr. Wayne wrote–his masterpiece–but the true masterpiece is Patricia and every other student he trains and coaches to become all they can be.

The teacher

 characters are very inspiring!

A few of their traits I admire are:

–noticing the struggling student and taking the time to help
–utilizing creative teaching techniques
–perseverance
–gentleness
–empowering students to become the masterpiece

Who was your most inspirational teacher?  Name and grade level?
Or, who inspires you and why?
I have too many to list, but one was Mr. Marsh for 7th grade English.  I loved it when He would read our papers aloud and we would try to guess who wrote them.