Anna M. Minter is a national inspirational speaker,enthusiastic child activist,entertainer and puppeteer, founder of GRACIOUS ME ACADEMY, published author. She is the proud mother of four children and five grandchildren.
With all our speakers in the series ( Anna Minter, Glenn Morshower, Michael Berry,Curtis Sliwa, Lisa Evers Rachel and Tommy Burchfield,Joel Osteen, and Mike Warnke) we will be looking at 1.an overview of their accomplishments for children and others. 2. their personal philosophy 3. their effectiveness as a role model 4. the way they deal with WEEDS ( negative people/situations) 5. eye witness presentations of their success, 6. FINDING THE KID'S HIDDEN TALENTS and finally 7. Links to learn more about them.
Philosophy of ANNA MINTER in her own words for this article --
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is - What are you doing for others? " MLK JR.
Imagination: " I AM..." How you finish that sentence is the seed that sprouts within your belief system. "I am a star student" was my sentence as a little girl. I loved school! ( Well, except for the second day of kindergarten, where I bolted out of my classroom hoping to find my way home, but that is another story!) I excelled at learning. My siblings and cousins thought I was crazy, always wanting to be at school or playing teacher. That is, until I entered the 4th grade.
With 39 other 4th graders in my catholic school, I met our overwhelmed, already-burnt-out teacher Sister Katie. Suffering at the hands of this "caped crusader" ( apologies to Batman) I learned to DISLIKE school!. The following summer we found out she was moving up to the fifth grade with us and would be my teacher once again. Oh, the dread! I endured another year of not only emotional but physical abuse at the hands of this nun. School lost it's wonderful appeal for me.
Fast forward to my sixth grade teacher, Mrs Chaki, an angel sent from heaven. She opened doors of imagination by inspiring once again my love of learning. In her class I made my 1st diorama for a book report. These dioramas were little 3-D shoe boxes that represented each of the stories the class had read. Each one was so different. She also instructed us early on that we would have a science project that would encompass the entire year. We would become an expert in our field of study. "Any subject?" we all asked. "Yes, just add 'ology' and come prepared with a project and ready to answer any questions" was her response. Because of Mrs. Chaki, I was an "eye doctor" for my science project.
It was an election year, and for Civics we were to gather information on our favorite candidate and be prepared to debate the issues. For History we re-enacted a famous speech. I dressed as Patrick Henry - " Give me liberty or give me death!"
This is the teacher who inspired my passion to teach by flaming the fire of my imagination. I was a civic-minded activist when I debated for my candidate. With the diorama, i was the book, working like a miniature movie set. Yes, i was Patrick Henry! What am I now? I AM an educator. Words have power. Imagination combined with words is essential, and ACTION must become inevitable.
Remember when we feel unqualified, we ALL have genius in our DNA. No barriers allowed! Excuse me! I AM a genius! As a child you were excited, what areas or strengths do you possess that people call on you for help? What hidden talents do you have that others "see" about you - there is your power! With children and all others we need to listen to their solutions, and talk to them with respect. My most effective conversation with children will include a dialogue to figure out how to resolve problems. EMPOWER them and the solutions will be found and behavior will change.
As an example, it was my second year of teaching, and a argument ensued in the play area with sides taken and one side did seem to have an element of bullying. How to avoid tension and bad feelings? We had a court session with the defendant, plaintiff, grandpas being the judges complete with top hat and black cape. The kids called their witnesses and everyone learned the others view with higs given at the end. i was glad I did not give in to lecturing or punishment - and 20 years later the parents and kids remember the lessons learned ! The End of Anna's text.
As a role model , Anna Minters family - Husband Bob and children are all teachers and child activists, they have been married since the 70's as high school sweethearts.
WEEDS - are negative people and situations and Anna is unique in this group - she will hug a weed, counsel the weed. No matter how long it takes to teach the weed - do it. Show love to the weed, set up a court and help the weed learn it is a weed and how not to be one. Readers - be aware all our other Inspirational speakers will not be this nice to the weed.
FINDING THE HIDDEN TALENT - I can personally say that Anna showed me how to develop talent with puppets to help kids learn, she taught me how to make them, create dialogue and overcome fear and shyness. To Anna - one child or person is just as important as thousands!
PERSONAL WITNESS OF THE MINTER FAMILY AS TEACHERS: Teaching is a family mission for the Minters, I and some other kids were having dinner at Anna's house She and her husband Bob Minter have rule at the dinner table - before you get the food you have to verbally present your accomplishments for the day. When this was demanded of me I froze - "uh, uh..." so their son BOBBY jumped in presented his goals for the day - What have you learned? How have you helped people? So Bobby looks over at me like - you can do it! So I copied him and his dad was satisfied,at one time I was looking down at the table and Bob said - " Look at us all when speaking!" The meal was great. The study of Inspirational Speaking shows that the results grow exponentially when a family does it together!
1 comment:
I am glad someone told me about this report on Miss Annie who teaches in Oregon.Her caring saved my daughter. My daughter's teacher before Anna Minter was very substandard especially to my little girl who is naturally shy. The teacher will not call on my daughter and when she tentatively raises her hand for a question or to participate in a game such as spelling - hangman, Mrs B would never call on her. My girl NEEDS a teacher who cares for her self esteem, she became depressed. Then - Miss Annie - what a difference! I come to the classroom and there are almost 10 pictures of characters from greek mythology my daughter drew for Miss Annie - Hermes, the guy with wing feet, a Cyclops (!) and more. Miss Annie somehow got my girl to play piano while the kids sang a song in the auditorium. Anna Minter got my girl to read a poem in front of a big crowd - I could not believe that! Miss Annie help her hand while she read. We need more writings like this!
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