Recently, I had the opportunity to review a book written by Phillip Done, a friend to the Silicon Valley Moms Group of which I am a contributing writer.
Phil’s book, titled “32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny- Life Lessons from Teaching” was a great read.
As you might guess, Phil is a 3rd grade teacher, and from what I can gather, probably the coolest 3rd grade teacher to walk the planet. The first time I cracked open the book, I saw he had written a note to me inside the cover and capped it off with a smiley face! Only a teacher would do that, and it gave me the warm and fuzzies even before I read the first sentence. lol.
Phil is really, really funny and it comes across in his writing. I laughed out loud at practically every other page as he detailed some of the life “behind the scenes” as a teacher. “Back to School Night” will never be the same personally for me. And because of his detailed explanation of the categories of classrooms, I now have insight as to my own son’s current teacher’s state of mind. Her classroom is the “model home”, by the way.
In one of sections, he talks about the many hats of a teacher. Doctor, dentist, taxi service, actor, mom, detective, decorator, repairman, musician, mailman, athlete, businessman. And a large portion of the book details stories (hilarious and often sentimental) about his class, and his love of teaching. And, yes, he talks about his pet bunny, a mascot of sorts for his third grade classroom.
This is a guy who at the heart of it all, loves every kid he teaches and exudes passion for his job. One of my favorite passages from his book is this one…
“Just think about what you know today. You read. You write. You work with numbers. You solve problems. We take all these things for granted. But of course you haven’t always read. You haven’t always known how to write. You weren’t born knowing how to subtract 199 from 600. Someone showed you. There was a moment when you moved from not knowing to knowing. There was a moment when you moved from not understanding to understanding. That’s why I became a teacher.”
When I think back to my own teachers who impacted my life, I think of a few who shared that same passion for teaching. And because of them, and teachers like Phil , here I am today exercising one of my own passions… writing. Thank you, Phil.
Check out Phil’s website for more information and where to find his book… http://www.phillipdone.org/
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