Goodbye, Mr. Wallenberg

One of my favorite teachers, possibly the best teacher I've ever had, passed away this last week. I had the privilege of being a student of Mr. Wallenberg's in both 7th and 9th grade at Edison Jr. High.

Not only did Mr. W. bring the subjects of literature and history to life for us, he also was a positive, encouraging, caring adult in the lives of so many of us who were just terribly insecure and searching for a place to fit in. I realize now he influenced my love of literature, which led to my English degree. I remember laughing and loving the learning in each of his classes.

Things I still remember:
*our project to compare and contrast West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet
*memorizing the 23 helping verbs and 23 personal and possessive pronouns aided by him repeating them over and over in random, silly voices
*writing and creating the short film "Karate Kid Part Something" for the 9th grade film festival (I was the film editor!)
*him setting the classroom rules on the first day of class, which involved him reenacting how NOT to behave when the fire trucks from the station next door drove by with their sirens on (it involved him jumping out of a desk and knocking it over)
*eating pomegranates when we studied Homer
*journaling - he had us keep journals to write about anything we wanted and told us he wouldn't make any judgments about what we wrote. He knew at our age that we needed to just get our feelings out on paper.
*reading fiction of our choosing for homework and meeting with him 1-1 to discuss what we were reading and learning
*the list could go on...

Here is his obituary:
Miller Funeral Home

i want to meet this person

(from http://postsecret.blogspot.com/)

creating

sometimes, i wonder if i'd have less ocd if i just sat down and created again.

and then i say that it feels too hard,

or i don't have time,

or i'm not inspired,

but deep down i know it's that i worry that i'm not any good

because when i do sit down,

i'm rusty

and my hand doesn't flow across the page the way it used to

and the lines don't look right

and it all just feels

flat and numb. 

my inner self says i'm not good enough,

but we all know that's a lie.

i am an artist.

in 2010, i'm going to find the weapon that slays those lies.

(photo from http://postsecret.blogspot.com)