We have just completed the Thanksgiving weekend and I will take this time between this and the winter break to be thankful for colleagues. I am a strong advocate of focusing on the students but colleagues build your environment and create or destroy a happy workplace. At Rangeview I have been blessed with some people that I will never forget and are a reason why I enjoyed teaching. I want to start with the business department chair when I got to Rangeview. Ingrid was one of the most enjoyable and endearing relationships at Rangeview, She had the ability to make a tough day fun or tell me when I was out of line. Previously, I mentioned the event for our 50th birthdays so I won’t go over it again. I think my favorite was the joy we both had with music. The day we tried to show my class the Temptations dance moves was priceless. I was trying but I was stumbling along with Ingrid’s graceful moves. We also tried to teach them the Hustle but they thought we were crazy. I learned from her how to have relationships with my classes. How to develop trust and mutual admiration for students. I was in awe of how she could talk with students and make them feel great about themselves. She also could tell them things that other teachers couldn’t. Ingrid remains one of my daughter’s favorite teachers from high school and ranks her ahead of me. She had a sense of humor that was very on point and knew how to have fun. She retired a few years ago. My favorite part of the first day of school for several years after her retirement was the very early morning text. She wished me a happy first day of school and she was going to Zumba and then out to lunch with other retirees. Maybe next year I can text her to have fun at Zumba and that I am going golfing.
