Starbucks Cup #77, Beth Israel Deaconess Boston

a totally necessary second latte of the day

The Way I See It #77

the human catalysts for

"dreamers are the teacher and

encouragers that "dreamers"

encounter throughout their lives.

They are invaluable in the quest

to turn ideas into reality. So

here's a special thanks to all of

the teachers - especially my

teacher, Miz Lane!

--Kevin Carroll

"Katalyst" and author of Rules of

the Red Rubber Ball: Find and

Sustain Your Life's Work."

In the spirit of the cup, I'll take a minute to thank my teachers (just elementary school today, I started with middle, it got way too long):

Preschool: Mrs. Bass, Mrs. Lelliott, and Mrs Whitaker. You took me to the farm, which was awesome. I made exciting crafts with you, including a fruit loop necklace, back when fruit loops only came in 3 colors! Amy ate most of it on a car ride to New Hampshire, but the point was I had fun making it. Also all those craft projects that included either pasta or dying things or bits of fabric. They absolutely molded my childhood. Between you and my mom, I became a craft whore.

Kindergarten: Mrs. Schoman. You were just about the nicest lady ever. Though it would be illegal to do so now, I loved it when I did something really well and I got a hug from you. You also did a lot of cool things that other teachers didn't do, like have our classmate Peter tell us all about having leukemia, and having a blind lady come in and teach with you, showing us that she was no different than anybody else. Also, I loved learning the shapes, and how we always had to color in a shape and then cut it out, paste on arms and legs and give it a name and stuff like that. Also, you helped me to start combatting my shyness when we sang the alphabet song for the end of the year "finale." I still remember "L is the lovelight in your eyes"

First Grade: Miss Harrison. You were a totaly nazi and scared the crap out of so many kids. I am so glad I got on your good side from the start, because underneath the scariness you were hilariously funny, something which I didnt' really realize until I got older and understood adult humor. You really taught me to read, which was so cool! You taught me to spell well too, and some fundamental math. You taught me about cheating too, a concept I didn't understand until I got to your class, asked a friend during a spelling test what word you had just said and had you storm down the aisle and rip up my test. I think you felt bad later, not realizing what I had been asking. I know you thought I had potential too, something I learned later. Also, the Flag Day thing, well it was DA BOMB!

Second Grade: Ms. Cashell. You were nice teacher, very patient. I don't remember a ton of second grade vividly, mostly just the fact that we had 4 mikes in our class. I know you taught me more complex math stuff, like carrying, which I thought was like, the most mind bending crazy ass thing I had ever seen in my life. I was like "woahhhh duuudue you carry the one to the tens column? far out" So that was awesome.

Third Grade: Ms. R. Doherty. I liked you because you were a cool lady. You were very mysterious to all of us students. You were a little older and unmarried and mysterious. Every holiday we made the best crafts too, like the giant posterboard black cats for Halloween. You let someone bring puppies into the classroom once too. You taught the year of the gulf war and had us write letters and send care packages to the troops, which was really cool. I got to meet both of my penpals that year when they returned to the US. You were always printing banners on the computer, so we could color them in and give them to people who needed a little cheering up. I remember once you gave me the responsibility to color in a get well banner for someone who needed a boost. I had to color it in with "pastels and soft colors" and I remember you were very pleased with the neatness of the whole project. I also have a book you gave me and inscribed with your calligraphic handwriting.

Fourth Grade: Mr. Smith. Mr Smith was the greatest teacher. He really challenged me and I think under his guidance and demand for the highest performance I became the person I am today. He was a disciplinarian and he was hardcore, but he was one of the greats. He really got me interested in Science at this point in time, and he was always doing great things like taking us on a whale watch, unwinding the string in a baseball to see how long it was, pushing us to do creative writing and extra credit projects or playing the dictionary game. Plus he recognized the fact that we were not too old to enjoy being read to, and read us among other things, "The Indian in the Cupboard." Shoutout to Mrs. Cripps (math) who did speed tests and made me love math and made her husband come into the school to set up his teepee and teach us about native american life and Ms. Hickey (english) who made me love reading and writing even more.