Softball Fan

From: elindamood@mail.millikin.edu
Subject: Mr. Coate memory
Date: January 15, 2007 4:06:01 PM CST


Every home softball game Mr. Coate was there supporting us. We could always find him with two bags of popcorn standing at the fence by right field.

Erica Lindamood

Silly Teaser

From: jkersey@eureka.edu
Subject: Mr. Coate
Date: January 15, 2007 3:32:43 PM CST


When I think of Mr. Coate, I always think of . . .
~the rainbow of colors on his skin after a long day of notes
~the distinctive smell of his room
~the way he scared off all the freshman
~the change in attitude once we were upperclassmen
~the day that he took the baby sharks out of the one we were disecting and plopped them into his baby shark jar
~the scary lookin pelican that sits on top of the fridge
~the label for the Kleenex, "for the mucus challenged"
~the way he would tell us something very important with his eyes closed
~the silly little grin he would get when he made a joke
~the way he teased chelsea wallis all the time in Zoology
~the psychadelic butterfly he had on the wall in the lab room
~and just the overall good times had in his classes

Jessica Kersey

Cover Pix

The cover of the book features these pictures of life with Mr. Coate. These days, his students can take digital pictures of the bugs they need to be able to identify, and print and cut them out to make flashcards when they get home.

The medal is one he gave his long-time students last year. Each one is personalized with the student's name and the message "Believe in yourself"

Mr. Coate Memories

A teacher's journey takes him not only through his own life, but through the lives of hundreds of students. The best teachers not only assist us in making sense of the world around us, but also impart to us something about how to make our own journeys. We continue to hear their voices long after we leave the classroom

Ralph Coate leaves an impression which can only be described as indelible. Those of us not fortunate enough to have had a place in his classroom ourselves have watched him challenge our children, inspiring them to reach farther, and work harder than they ever have before, to achieve well beyond what they thought was within their capacity.

In these pages, we, Ralph's admirers, have gathered just a few remembrances. We hope they convey the fondness held for Ralph in the hearts of his colleagues and the students to whom he has dedicated his career.

Valerie Bock
Spring 2007

The Concept

Ok, so the basic concept is that we've collected some wonderful memories of Mr. Coate, and I'm putting them in a book which will be published by the good folks at Apple Computer. I've sprinkled some scanned-in shots from yearbooks thoughtfully provided by Ruby Tindel, Kevin Tindel and Debbie Horne.

I'm going to try to capture the flavor of the thing here, mostly because it's not possible to share the book itself with all the contributors, but I really wanted those who were interested to be able to see how their contribution fit into the whole.

Shhhhh!

This is a site honoring Ralph Coate, who is retiring after 44 years of service as a life sciences teacher at the Meridian (formerly Macon) High School in Macon, Illinois.

The contents here has been gathered to be presented to Mr. Coate in book form later this year. Please don't blow the surprise for him! Share this URL with anyone else, but please don't tell Mr. Coate!!!

(To see the pages in sequence, use the "Newer Post" link which appears at the bottom of this column on each page.)