“Sixteen,” I said. I have forgotten the math question my second-grade teacher, Joyce Cooper asked that day, but I will never forget my _1_ . As soon as the number left my mouth, the whole class started _2_ . I felt like the silliest person in the world.
Mrs. Cooper fixed them with a firm (严格的) look. Then she said: “We’re all here to _3_ .”
Another time, Mrs. Cooper asked us to write a _4_ about what we hoped to do with our lives. I wrote: “I want to be a _5_ like Mrs. Cooper.”
She wrote on my report, “You would make an outstanding(杰出的) teacher _6_ you are determined(坚定的) and you try hard.” I was to carry those _7_ in my heart for the next 27 years.
After I graduated from high school, I got married and had children.
We needed every penny just to get by. College – and teaching – was out of the question.
Then one day I thought of my _8_ of how I wanted to help children. I talked it over with my family and _9_ to attend college classes in the mornings before work. And when I got home from work, I would _10_ . Finally after seven years, my dream had been realized and I became a teacher.
Not long after I started _11_ , something happened that brought the _12_ rushing back to me. I had written a sentence with grammatical(语法的) mistakes on the blackboard. Then I asked students to come and _13_ the mistakes.
One girl got halfway through, became confused(迷乱的) and stopped. As the other children laughed, _14_ rolled down her face. I gave her a hug and told her to get a drink of water. Then, remembering Mrs. Cooper, I fixed _15_ of the class with a firm look. “We’re all here to learn,” I said.