Ms. Randall was my kindergarten teacher. She had tons of animals in her room so all the kids wanted to get her for a teacher. My sisters and I were lucky enough that we all got to be in her class. She had a turantula, guinee pigs, hamsters (one named smarty), huge african snails and assorted other critters. She also taught me to read in about 2 minutes. Apparently I had all the necessary phonics skills, but had no idea what to do with them. She called me up to her desk one day and asked me to read the word she was pointing to. She might as well have asked me to fly. I was filled with confusion that she would ask me to do such a big thing when I hadnt the faintest idea how. I told her I couldnt read of course. But she replied quickly and impatiently with "yes you can ursula, just sound out the word, you know all your sounds". She acted like I was pitifully stupid for not knowing how smart I was and her impatience at my lack of faith, was so obvious that I thought, surely she must be right, I must be able to do this. I looked at her and back at the word and gave it a shot. When she nodded I just kept going. I was disapointed when she stopped me finally, about half way through the book. But at the end of the day she let me take it home. I was so excited that she would trust me with it! My very own book that I could actually read by myself! It was huge.
In the years to follow I had many teachers who were not near as great as she was, and some that were just plain horrible, but she started me off right and that helped a lot. I'm sure she never knew how much she meant to us. Honestly I'm not even sure she liked me very much, I was an ugly awkward shy thing in clothes much too small for me. But she was a great teacher.