Connecting With the Past...Meeting with Former Students (#4): Learning From an Artist

I am having many interesting take-aways from my conversations with former students. Some students

remember very specific details about our classroom experience, while other students have more general memories about their elementary experiences.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to meet up with former student #4, Lindsay. Lindsay was in the same looping 1st-2nd grade class as Keith from my last blog. In that blog, I shared how special this class has always been for me.

If someone was to ask me to name a few of my most memorable students, Lindsay would definitely be one of them.  No favoritism here...I promise! It was more about Linday's love of school and learning and how much she seemed to love me and our classroom that makes her so memorable. That and the dozens of pictures and letters along with homemade gifts she gave to me over our two years together.

Lindsay and I met for breakfast and had fun chatting about everyone from this class and what she remembered from our two years together.

Lindsay made this for me and it is still displayed in my office today 💗

Lindsay's memories are more general about her experiences in elementary school. She does remember that she loved school and is still in touch with several of the students from our class. She shared that second grade did have a homey feeling since it was the second year our class was together and we had really become a close-knit group.

Her memories from our time together include our hamster Speedy, the Scholastic Book Fair, the traveling planetarium that used to visit out school each year- StarLab, doing gymnastics in gym class, the school carnival each year, Halloween parades, our beautiful school library, and the very cool playground that had been built by families just a few years prior.

Lice invaded our classroom during the second grade year and unfortunatley Lindsay's long beautiful hair was not spared. I know that was a stressful time for all 😔

The summer between our first and second classes, I attended Lindsay's birthday party at her house. The girls from our class were there for a swim party and it was a fun afternoon catching up with everyone and hearing about their summer fun.

The Girls in 2nd grade

What I remember about Lindsay is how much she loved school and how creative and artistic she was. She was always drawing pictures and making projects, and a typical day either began or ended (sometimes both) with something on my desk from Lindsay. She was a good student and definitely an out-of-the-box thinker.

Lindsay taught me to find and nurture the gifts in all of my students. She taught me to see the beauty in every day and that giftedness comes in many different packages.

Linsday is now an artist and a high school art teacher who is expecting her first child in February. Her husband is currently deployed and I thank him for his service and wish him a safe return home...hopefully in time to welcome his baby into the world.

Just two of the dozens of letters, cards and drawings I have from Lindsay.