John, I'm going to miss you

John Lovas, my mentor Jocalo, passed away this week. He's one of the people I corresponded with in real life, before I had a blog, and he made the connections. I wished before that I'd gotten to 4C's this year and now I'm really sad that I didn't.

John helped me through a transition from being a candidate to being a teacher. No, I didn't get the full-time job, but I came back and worked as though I would have been a great choice. I let go of my "candidate" persona and got a lot of courage from his words. He challenged me via his blog and his suggestions were always helpful when I tried something new in the classroom. I wrote to him first when my students wrote midterms that sang after they'd read the 9/11 Commission Report (his suggestion).  I was timid, it was an election semester, and he showed me that I really could do it.

Thank you, John. I'm missing you already.