Mr. Montoya was my teacher three different times and each time was a difficulty for me.  The question is, did I learn from his 'complications' in my life?

     When I was in 8th Grade, I got whooping cough and was absent for 6 of the 9 weeks in the 3rd Quarter.  All of my work was sent home and I worked hard to keep up.  In all of my classes, I maintained my Straight A's.  When I got my report card from Mr. M, I had a C...even though all of my papers were A's.  His premise was that all learning is not done on paper or in books.

     When I homeschooled my kids, and when I taught school, that must have stuck in my head, cuz I put books aside as much as I could and tried to  have hands-on learning as much as possible.  (I disagree still with giving me the low grade, but the reasoning was not incomprehensible.)

     That same year, he did encourage me to do my research paper on the etymology of words.  I fell in love with language at that time.  I even did a speech in college using variations of the same word mixed and mingled to give a crazy message.  To this day, I love to read the thesaurus, believe it or not.

     Then, in my sophomore year, I took his History class.  He sent us to a sub so he could go out to set up for a big track meet.  We had the option of staying in the classroom to watch a movie or go to the library to work on our research projects.  You can guess that we chose the library where there was no supervision...and we all ditched!  Two classes minus one student (who happened to go back into the building in time to see the teacher on her way to the library and made a quick U-turn back inside.) all had to serve detention.

     What I learned from that is that I made sure that my students were given an assignment with accountability whenever I subbed...even if the teacher didn't leave one.  I made a game of who could take the most notes during the movie and gave prizes. I NEVER left a movie for the my subs cuz I knew that the kids don't watch it anyway.  (Again, was he right in his decision, probably not.  I just learned to NOT make his wrong decision.)

     That year, there was an essay contest for Black History Month.  Mr. Montoya encouraged me to enter since he knew my love for writing.  I ended up winning third place, I believe, with my paper on Harriet Tubman.  I wasn't even planning to try to compete and got a cool prize.

     And then, in my junior/senior year, I took Early Bird Govt. from him.  I was tardy a few times.  Each one was an F for the day...even if I did all of the work successfully.  I managed to pull off a C for the semester somehow and transferred out so I did graduate.  Sadly, I am still late most of the time.  I wish I had learned that lesson from him.....

     Graduation night, as I walked by him, he looked over at me and smiled, and told me that he was proud of me.  His heart was right.  Some of his methods were just a little different.  I didn't understand his ways but he did make a difference in my life.

Not any teacher particularly challenged me.  But some have had  lasting impressions.  My counselor, Mr. Ramiraz helped me so much in picking out colleges and getting scholarships.  I did not appreciate it at the moment, but I do now that I have observed other counselors that just do not take the time to sit and chat with kids like he did. He really went the extra mile. I wish I could tell him how much all that he did meant to me.  I also thought that Steve Webb, Mrs. Clark, and Mrs. Harrington were dedicated teachers.

Libby Mogush Yuskaitis 

Mrs. Clark, yes.....my Spanish teacher, talk about a great person!  I guess I was teacher's pet with her because I had the hardest time learning a second language. Two years in her class and zip, zilch, nada. I think she took pity on me. I was good with the history and such, just not the speaking part. Also took two years of French, can't remember the teacher's name but she was slightly husky, shorter blonde hair. That was even tougher to learn.

My favorites were Mr. Webb, Mrs harrington ( I think Libby & I were in those clases together) Mr Prince ( he taught me to think logically) Mr. Viores,  really made me appreciate English & reading. I have to say I learned the most from coach Varrato. I learned many valuable lessons about hard work & never giving up that have helped me throughout my life.