My Second Grade Teacher

My brother and his wife had an open house closer to home in West Valley. I was made the "official photographer" for this night of casualness. And here is the only picture I want to post from that night.

The woman on the left is my 2nd grade teacher. She was Miss Dickson back then. Today she is Erika Bettinson. And she was the best. I can't really recall what was so great about her class. I was only 7. Here are things I do remember:

• for every birthday we would write a letter to that student and she would bind it.
• for your birthday she would whack you firmly on the bottom with her yardstick (can't get away with that now) and EVERYONE LOVED IT! I couldn't wait for it to be my turn.
• she gave you a soda if you could say the alphabet backwards (I've never forgotten it since)
• she loved music, especially "No One Like You" (which I just recently found out is a John Denver song) and we sang it to her on the last day of school so she would cry
• she could deal with tough boys
• I remember reading group time
• I remember my whole reading group laying in the ground with our eyes closed as she read us a story.
• she would never sit cross-legged/Indian-style
• she went on quite the trip the summer after I had her and she let us request what country from which she would send us a postcard
• I won a high readers contest and got to go to her house for food and a movie (again, something you can't do today)

It's not a very long list and most isn't really the stuff I actually learned in her class. I guess the most important thing, that I didn't list, is I felt so important to her and so loved! Pretty sure she made everyone feel that way. She went to my baptism (the summer after 2nd grade), my farewell sacrament meeting for my mission (13 yrs later), and my wedding reception (15 yrs. later). And she did that for A LOT of people I know. I see her so often at other events like these. And every time I see her, she is so kind and sweet and talks to me. My mom sees her at work often and she always asks about how I'm doing. I posted this picture on her wall on Facebook and immediately several people "liked" the photo. She is just so special to the people she knows.

Reminds me of the scripture in the Bible, 1 John 4:19  "We love him, because he first loved us." Thank you for loving me Miss Dickson! I love you too!