My Mr. Borilla stories have also become an integral part of my presentation for the Northern Nevada Writing Project’s “Improving Narrative & Memoir In-service Class.”  The class (including all its resources) can be accessed at the WritingFix Website:  Click here to access those resources!

If you were a student at Bullard Elementary and want to share a memory or two, I have established this post for you.  Simply click here and type/paste your memory into the “Leave a Comment” box below.  Once it is approved by the moderator, it will be made public for others to read and enjoy.

–Corbett Harrison (http://corbettharrison.com)

I ask you, “Who was the teacher that inspired you to become a teacher?”

When I do demonstration lessons in elementary classrooms, I often begin by telling the students a “Mr. Borilla story.” Michael Borilla was my fourth and fifth grade teacher at Bullard Elementary in Fresno, California. He was the first male teacher I had ever had, and he was also the first teacher whose classroom control methods scared me more than just a little. When he yelled, he yelled loudly and he got in your face. To this day, I believe Mr. Borilla’s shouting voice could have cut glass.

More importantly, he was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. He did things for me that no teacher had ever done, and that no teacher has been able to do since. I became a teacher because of Mr. Borilla.

Using the Internet, I have searched for Mr. Borilla many times, but to no avail. I am unsure what ever became of him, just as I am sure he is unaware what became of me. If you know where he is, tell him to contact me. I’d like to know what he thinks of the stories I have told and written about him, and I’d like him to know that he inspired me to become a teacher who valued writing above everything else.

Having told my stories about him countless times to both teachers and students, I have become aware that every one of us has a story about that teacher who changed us, who affected our lives and probably doesn’t even know it. I have set up this page off my own website to encourage my fellow teachers to write down and share memories of important teachers from their own pasts.

Need to see an example?  By visiting my webpage devoted to Mr. Borilla, you will be able to read some of the stories I have written about my most influential teacher. I have told and re-told these stories so often over the years that I can no longer be sure which parts of the stories are completely true, and which parts I have exaggerated in my attempts to be a better story-teller.  True or slightly-fabricated, these stories do what they’re supposed to do: they encourage the children I work with to want to become story-tellers too.  When I tell students my stories about him, I know Mr. Borilla is still having a positive effect on students.

I have established this blog as a place for other teachers to 1) celebrate the teacher(s) who inspired them to teach and to 2) practice those skills of story-telling by penning and sharing original writing about those teachers.  Please take some time, write something about an influential teacher, and post it here.  Let’s form a on-line community that celebrate teachers to show that we value education.

–Corbett Harrison (http://corbettharrison.com)

Now I am not saying I’m some type of Patricia Polacco, but I have been telling stories about the teacher who influenced me the most–Mr. Mike Borilla–for years.  You can read my memoirs about him at my own website: http://www.corbettharrison.com/borilla.html

A narrative can be a paragraph, a page, picture book, or an novel!  Great teachers leave us memories that are worthy of narratives of any size.  If you have a narrative to share, simply type/paste your paragraph about him/her into the “leave a reply” box below.   Describe how they inspired you, or tell a quick story about what a typical day/class was like with this teacher.  Extra credit well be generously awarded to anyone who posts a picture of himself/herself–or of their influential teacher–when they post.

Once your short description has been approved by our moderator, it will be made public here at this webpage.  Thank you for sharing with our community!

No rules for these poems to post here.  Simply capture your teacher’s impact with a poem that celebrates him/her.

Simply type or copy/paste your poem into the “Leave a Comment” box below.  It will be published here once it is approved by the moderator.