Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Callie Conerton

Being a student of Alison Mckenna's was a honor. Her classroom was always filled with students who wanted to learn and wanted to be in the classroom, which is rare for any group of high school students. I was one of the few students who was bold enough to call her Ali, she was always shaking her head at me but I still did it. The way I was raised you call a teacher by the first name to show respect. After the 5th time of explaining this to her she gave up trying to push my will. In her classroom I got to create works of art from ceiling tiles, poems, songs to a artistic performance or two. I experienced sugar plum fairies, superman, shouting profound words at the top of my lungs and a talk about condoms and how they relate to parents, in her classroom. Nothing was off limits and as a student filled with questions, it was the perfect environment. We would have days where we played the hot seat and asked one person a bunch of different questions, sometimes Ali stopped the questions but it was rare. We got into heated discussions on every topic and we were made to feel like a family. After that first year of high school, I saw Ali all over town with her kids and friends. She always made a point to smile and wave back at me and sometimes just sat and talked for a while. She was disorganized to say the least but in the mess there was a sane reason, it was the Ali McKenna method of organization. Although sometimes it took a couple minutes to find a paper or two, you could not help but smile and laugh along with her mutters on, " it was right here, it is somewhere I know it" She was my favorite high school teacher hands down and I always will think of her when I look back to the days at Juneau Douglas. She inspired me and challenged me in every day things. She showed passion with all of her students and treated them with respect. There will never be a end to how much I could write on Ali or how many moments we shared together. however  this phrase seems fitting, Alison McKenna was a Captain, my Captain.

Callie Conerton

No comments:

Post a Comment