When I was in fourth grade I had a great teacher (actually looking back, most of my teachers were pretty good except… that doesn’t matter). In fourth grade I had Mr. Kermit Welch. Mr. Welch did a lot of weird and strange things as we look at the test heavy, no creativity, schools of today – he’d be be listed as “not effective” even though he was. You see Mr. Welch was at school early and encouraged his students to arrive early for coin club, or ukulele practice. We had a “Nature Garden” (a small section in a corner between classrooms and the playground) being in California it was basically desert flora & fauna, a small pond, and a concrete bench. The bench was put in when i was in his class and we all scribbled our names in the wet cement. The last time I visited the school it was still there. When I taught fourth grade I’d find myself asking “What would Mr. Welch do?”
So what does this have to do with MINIon #1814? Each Year Mr. Welch put on a play, a musical. It was what we worked on it seemed all the time. I know I learned a lot, but all the learning was wrapped around this final project – “The Woolybooger Play.” Costumes were made out cardboard boxes, backdrops built, songs memorized, and ukuleles tuned. During the performance there was Mr. Welch, leading the choir, and the flocks of ukuleles, bouncing between various saxophones to add a little kick to the score. I don’t know where Mr. Welch is now, but he was one of THOSE teachers for me, the kind I hope I am to at least a few of my students each year.
