~ the back wall - Mr. Brown - page 7 ~

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More rock band posters - Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Ramones and a Frank Zappa tee shirt. I see a round Beatles calendar.

He who shall be known as "28"

You will get a good look at the green and yellow marching band hat later. It was missing a string from the padding on the inside, and I could push it down on my head until the visor was by my neck. Always got a big laugh. Next to that is a sax section is a Santa and and M&M, both with tenor saxes and some cool shades.

There are a couple of really cool photos. One is a neat picture of Tree Rollins and Spud Webb from the NBA. No good reason for this, I just thought it was a cool picture. There is a pencil drawing of me by a student who's name escapes me.

The color coded sheets are seating charts from past concerts. When kids come back to visit, they like finding their name. For years, at the end of 8th grade kids would autograph a song from their last concert and we would scotch tape it to the ceiling right over where they sat. Earlier my last year, we had a new fire marshall who said, correctly, the papers on the ceiling were a hazard.

The classroom sink is in this corner. Of course it has the requisite mouthpiece sanitizier. I would like to call your attention to the grey bus tray to the right of the sink. I was able to acquire it while working in the hospitality industry. It is great for cleaning stuff. Stuff like ... mouthpieces. There were well over 200 band students at ITMS, most of them wind players. At the end of every

school year it is standard practice for the teachers to clean all the mouthpieces after instruments are turned in. We did this. Every mouthpiece was dumped into the bus tray, washed in detergent and hot water, brushed and flushed with disinfectant and lined up to dry. Ms. Vasco and I had a division of labor - I opened jars that were too tight, she reminded me when I had a doctors appointment. The first year, Ms. Vasco informed me that she did not do mouthpiece cleaning. End of discussion.

The yellow photo is Rulon Gardner leaving his wrestling shoes on the mat after his last Olympic match. For a wrestler, leaving your shoes on the mat is a metaphor for giving your all and leaving it all out there. I was a wrestler in high school and my coach, Mr. Jim Brown was one of the biggest influences in my life and certainly in my teaching.

Mr. Jim Brown

I met Mr. Brown in 7th grade. He was a coach who would work with any kid, even the free spirits that the other coaches wouldn't go near during the 1960s. I was not a great athlete. Mr. Brown found a place for every kid that wanted to participate, treated all of us with respect and taught us how to respect both our teammates and our opponents.

Every kid deserves to know a Mr Brown. I thought about him every single day in this classroom.

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