National Day of Listening

Thanks to Amy Craft at Begin with 'Craft', I found out that today is our National Day of Listening.  

Image courtesy of
The Graphics Fairy



This is a special day to remember, honor and reconnect with teachers.  I have three teachers in my family: my sister (science and sometimes religion), my nephew (drama and English), and my niece (physical education).  I wish them a lovely day. 

I will not be reconnecting with any of my teachers today, unfortunately, but I remember all (well, almost all) of them fondly.  My favorite teachers were in high school English: Mrs. Hamilton (12th grade) and Mrs. Robbins (11th grade).  Seeing a pattern?

Mrs. Robbins was so positive and upbeat, in addition to loving literature.  Every day, she had a smiley face drawn on the chalkboard, with "Happy [insert day of week here]!" written under it.  Remember, this was in the 1970s. 

 

Mrs. Hamilton emphasized spelling and the importance of learning new words.  Even in 12th grade, we were getting ten new words every week.  I loved that, and her!  I had to smile yesterday as I listened to my second-grade god-daughter using words from her "new word" list.  It's clear that her teacher is doing a good job! 

National Day of Listening seems like a pretty nice holiday to share with family, too.  On this Black Friday, who among us wouldn't prefer sitting down with parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives to learn about the family, rather than crushing through the mall spending money we can't afford to buy gifts we are not sure that people will really like?  I hate it when I get cynical like this. 

A holiday like National Day of Listening is what it should really be about, and we should remember to celebrate it throughout the year.

That's enough for now; I'm going out to have a day with family and practice my listening skills!