Teacher Tuesday: Schooling with Stilettos

Now, I'm sure you're thinking about a fabulous little story of someone in stilettos motivating me. Well, that's only partly true.

Today's teacher was Ms. Dollz. She was a sassy Cuban blonde and was my music teacher throughout elementary school. Ms. Dollz was in charge of putting on the shows, the musicals, the pizzaz. To say that she had attitude was an understatement. To think that she did not command respect was a mistake.

You see, Ms. Dollz was old school. She believed in discipline. She believed that when she was speaking, kids should be quiet. And when that didn't happen, well, you got the heel. No, literally! While rehearsing shows she was notorious for flinging her shoe to get your attention! I remember my poor brother got the shoe once and he was shocked by it. But, he never tried to cut the fool with her again.

While the stiletto was definitely her signature move, it was obvious that she loved children and loved instilling her love of music and performance in all of us.  I adored her because she was fun and to me, funny.

Ms. Dollz reminded us all that teachers deserved (and in her case, demanded) respect. We all had fun in her class, I can assure you. We learned about music in different cultures, about dance and about the power of laughter.

Did you have a teacher that seemed stern but that you learned something from?