October 21, 2011
I recently received a letter from Mrs. Koller’s 4th/5th Grade Language Arts Class in California, asking a question that I’m often asked when I visit schools. So, I thought I would answer it here, for everyone to read.
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Dear Mr. Simon,
We loved your book VOLCANOES!! After reading it in our Houghton Mifflin readers, we read the section, "Meet the Author." The students wanted to know - what made you decide to retire from teaching and become an author? Do you ever miss being in the classroom?
In answer to your questions, I loved teaching, particularly working with smart, interesting kids and exploring subjects together. It doesn’t even have to be Science. I also taught Social Studies, English and Creative Writing while I was a teacher. Whatever the subject, I just loved being a teacher!
I finally stopped teaching after I had written about 100 books. There simply wasn’t enough time to write all the books that publishers were asking me to do and have a teaching job, also.
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Photo: Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Photographer: Michael Zamora. Reprinted with permission.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
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