Linda Schmidt

Educator, Growth mindset, innovative thinker, STEAM and student choice. Passionate about learning. Transplant from Minnesota.

[MNRick 🇺🇸🦅 @MNRick_v3]

August 21, 1883. Just after six in the evening, the sky over Rochester, Minnesota turns the color of a bruise. Twenty minutes later, a third of the town is gone. Thirty seven people are dead. More than two hundred are bleeding in the streets.

Rochester had no hospital. Not one.

So a convent school on the edge of town emptied out. The nuns walked into the wreckage in full habits, and a woman named Mother Alfred Moes, an immigrant from Luxembourg who had come to America with almost nothing, sent word to the only doctor in town who could handle that many wounded.

His name was William Worrall Mayo. He was 64, an English country doctor, a hard skeptic on the subject of religion.

The sisters took over Rommel's dance hall and turned it into a hospital overnight. None of them had ever been trained in nursing. They learned it standing up, with Mayo giving orders and the injured laid out on the floorboards.

When the last patient was gone, Mother Alfred went to see him.

She told him Rochester needed a real hospital. A permanent one. She said she had seen it, a great hospital rising out of the cornfields on the west edge of town, and that she wanted him to run it.

Mayo told her the truth. A building like that would cost $40,000. Well over a million in today's money. He said no congregation of school teaching nuns could possibly raise it.

She did not argue with him. She simply told him that if he would take charge of the hospital, the sisters would take charge of paying for it.

Then she went out and did it.

For six years, her sisters taught school and handed over their wages. Every dollar. She bought nine acres of farmland. She hired the builders. She oversaw the plans herself, and when the money ran short, she found more.

Saint Marys Hospital opened on September 30, 1889. Twenty seven beds. Thirteen sisters, none of them nurses by training. Dr. Mayo, now 70, walked in as chief of staff with his two sons, Will and Charlie, beside him.

Those two boys built their surgical practice inside her building. Patients started arriving from Chicago, then from every state, then from overseas. The brothers formalized the partnership in 1919 and gave it their family name.

Mayo Clinic. Today it treats more than a million patients a year and is ranked the best hospital in the United States.

Mother Alfred Moes died on December 18, 1899, ten years after the doors opened. She never saw what it became.

The Mayo brothers always said it plainly. Their father did not want the hospital. The nun did. She built it, and then she handed them the keys.

Millions of Americans have made the drive to Rochester with someone they love in the passenger seat. Almost none of them know that the whole thing started with a 54-year-old woman standing in tornado wreckage, refusing to accept a no.

h/t: Minnesota | FB

[Linda Schmidt @MsS_Firsties]

Way to go, ladies!!

[Bear Branch Elem @HumbleISD_BBE]

Thank you to these BBE staff members for their perfect attendance, the first nine weeks of school! Way to show up for our bears! 🐻💚🏫

[Mind Essentials @Mind_Essentials]

Grandpa's got a little shadow. 🥹

[Linda Schmidt @MsS_Firsties]

@Gini_220 Her life

[Linda Schmidt @MsS_Firsties]

@0Maria_B A coin holder

[Linda Schmidt @MsS_Firsties]

@AlexTran677026 Looks like dad is having more fun than his daughter! Love it!

[Jeremy Wayne Tate @JeremyTate41]

Kindergarten requirements for 1954

[Kevin W. @Brink_Thinker]

A touching video captures a mother sharing daily affirmations with her 3-year-old son, who has Down syndrome. 🫶

[the Sports ON Tap @thesportsontap]

Baylor football is wearing a six-year-old's artwork on their helmets today.

Her name is ILaria Ramirez. She is from Cameron, Texas.

She is a patient at Baylor Scott & White McLane Children's Medical Center.

Here is how it happened.

Baylor players went over to the children's hospital and sat down with the pediatric patients. Not a photo op, not a walk through and wave. They actually sat down at tables with the kids and drew together.

Blank Baylor Bear heads. Markers. Make it yours.

ILaria made hers pink and teal. She put a bear right in the middle of it.

And then she did two things that nobody told her to do.

She gave it a name. She called it the Helmet of Hope.

And she picked three words to go around the edge of it.

FAITH.

VICTORY.

STRENGTH.

A six-year-old chose those. Not a marketing department. Not a coach. Not her parents. Her.

Baylor took her drawing, turned it into a decal, and put it on every single helmet for today's Gold Rush game against Louisiana Tech.

Not a sticker on one guy's helmet. Not a patch on the sleeve.

Every player on the field wearing a first grader's bear on the side of their head.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and gold is the color for it worldwide. Baylor asked the entire stadium to wear gold today.

Head coach Dave Aranda on why:

"ILaria is one of us, and so we represent her and want her and her family to know that we're fighting along with her."

And linebacker Kyler Jordan, on what today actually is:

"Way bigger than football."

Here is the number that sits underneath all of this.

Nearly 1 in 285 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer before they turn 20.

One in 285. Before 20 years old.

Which means in a stadium that holds 45,000 people, the math says a few hundred of them have already been through some version of what ILaria is going through right now.

That is why the gold matters. That is why a helmet decal matters.

Somewhere in that building today there is a kid who knows exactly what a hospital room looks like, watching a Division I football team run out of the tunnel wearing a drawing made by a girl who is six.

FAITH. VICTORY. STRENGTH.

She picked those words herself.

[Sterling Snow @sterlingmsnow]

I reread this every year.

I cry like a baby every year.

Todd Beamer died a father, husband, and hero.

Todd: Hello… Operator… listen to me. I can’t speak very loud. This is an emergency. I’m a passenger on a United flight to San Francisco. Our plane has been hijacked.

Lisa: I understand. Can they see you?

Todd: No. There are three that we know of. They have knives — razor knives, like box cutters. Someone announced from the cockpit there was a bomb. It sounded fake.

Lisa: Your name?Todd: Todd Beamer. United Flight 93.Todd: They killed one passenger in first class. They forced most of us back. Fourteen of us here. Five flight attendants. The guy with the bomb ordered us to sit on the floor.

Lisa: Are you okay?

Todd: We’re going down… wait. No. We’re leveling off. We changed directions. We’re flying east again.

Todd: A guy named Jeremy called his wife. She told him two planes hit the World Trade Center. Lisa, is that true?

Lisa: I have to tell you the truth. It’s very bad. Both towers are gone. A third plane hit the Pentagon. Our country is under attack. I’m afraid your plane may be part of their plan.

Todd: Oh God. Lisa, will you do something for me? Call my wife and my kids. Promise me you’ll call.

Lisa: I promise.

Todd: Our home number is… You have the same name as my wife. Lisa. We’ve been married ten years. She’s pregnant with our third child. Tell her I love her. I’ll always love her. We have two boys — David, he’s 3, and Andrew, he’s 1. Tell them their daddy loves them and he is so proud of them. The baby is due January 12th. I saw an ultrasound. We still don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy.

Lisa: I’ll tell them. I promise, Todd.(Lisa patches in the FBI.)

Agent: Todd, your plane is on a course for Washington. Best guess is the White House or the Capitol.

Todd: I understand. I’ll be back.

Todd: Everyone knows this isn’t a normal hijacking. We have decided we will not be pawns in their plot.

Lisa: What are you going to do?

Todd: Four of us are going to rush the one with the bomb. Then the cockpit. A stewardess is getting boiling water. We’ll take them out.

Todd: Would you pray with me?They pray the Lord’s Prayer. Then: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

Todd: God help me. Jesus help me.Are you guys ready? Let’s Roll.

[Linda Schmidt @MsS_Firsties]

@VLJ2605 @HumbleISD_FCE Looks amazing!!

[SnowflakeSlayer @SnowflakeSlayr1]

From True Stories on Facebook:

Jeremy Glick was 31 when hijackers seized Flight 93 and threatened to blow it up. He called his wife, told her he loved her, learned the plane was part of a larger attack, and then helped organize the passengers to storm the cockpit.

Glick had no weapon.

He was not a soldier.

He was a sales manager, a husband and the father of a three-month-old daughter.

He was also a former national collegiate judo champion and black belt.

On September 11, 2001, Glick was flying from Newark to San Francisco for business.

Then the hijacking began.

The passengers were forced toward the back of the Boeing 757.

A hijacker claimed there was a bomb.

Another had a knife.

Glick called his mother-in-law's home and asked for his wife, Lyzbeth.

When she came on the line, he told her what was happening.

Then he told her something even worse.

He had learned about the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The plane wasn't simply being hijacked.

The passengers realized the aircraft could be turned into a weapon.

Glick told Lyzbeth that he and several other men were considering rushing the hijackers.

He asked what she thought.

She told him to do what he had to do.

Then the passengers began voting.

Fight back.

Or wait.

The decision was made.

They were going to take the cockpit.

Glick remained on the phone with his wife as the plan developed.

He told her he loved her.

Then the passengers moved.

Glick, Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett, Mark Bingham and others rushed toward the hijackers.

The cockpit voice recorder captured the struggle.

The plane began pitching violently.

At 10:03 a.m., Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Everyone aboard died.

But the plane never reached its intended target.

The 9/11 Commission concluded that the passengers' actions prevented the hijackers from completing their mission.

Glick's wife was left with their three-month-old daughter, Emmy.

He had called her knowing he might not come home.

He had told her he loved her.

Then he went forward.

Jeremy Glick boarded Flight 93 expecting a business trip.

Less than an hour later, he was deciding whether to fight four armed hijackers at 30,000 feet.

He knew the odds.

He knew there was a bomb.

He knew the plane was probably going to be used to kill more people.

And he still went.

He was 31.

He never came home.

But Flight 93 never reached its target.

[Brad Weinstein @WeinsteinEdu]

You notice how many people keep a school running the moment one of those jobs isn’t covered. A late bus changes the morning. A cafeteria shortage changes lunch. A custodial gap can change whether a space is usable. An absent aide can change what a student is able to access that day.

Teacher appreciation deserves plenty of attention. So does the work happening everywhere else in the building. Students experience all of it, even when the people doing that work never appear on a report card.

[Rita Mokbel ✊🇱🇧🇦🇪 @MokbelRita]

في عام 1979، تبنّى تسع فتيات صغيرات من البشرة السمراء لم يرغب بهن أحد: وما أصبحت عليه حياتهن بعد 46 عامًا سينتزع منك الذهول...
انهار عالم "ريتشارد ميلر" في عام 1979 عندما توفيت زوجته "آن". وأصبح بيتهما، الذي كان ممتلئًا بأحلام الأطفال، فارغًا. نصحه أصدقاؤه بالزواج مرة أخرى، لكنه ظل أوفى ما يكون لآخر كلمات "آن":
«لا تدع الحب يموت معي. أمنحه مكانًا آخر ليعيش فيه.»
في ليلة ممطرة وعاصفة، قاده القدر إلى دار "سانت ماري" للأيتام. وهناك اكتشف تسع فتيات صغيرات، تُركن جميعًا معًا، وكان بكاؤهن يتردد في الممرات. لم يرغب أحد في تبنيهن جميعًا، وكانت التفرقة بينهن تبدو أمرًا لا مفر منه.
لكن ريتشارد جثا على ركبتيه، وبصوت مرتجف همس:
«سآخذهن جميعًا. كل واحدة منهن.»
ظنه العالم مجنونًا، وشكك الأخصائيون الاجتماعيون في قدرته، وسخرت منه عائلته، بينما كان الجيران يتهامسون:
«ما الذي سيفعله رجل أبيض مع تسع فتيات صغيرات سمراوات؟»
رغم ذلك، باع ريتشارد ممتلكاته، وعمل ليلاً ونهارًا، وصنع تسعة أسرة صغيرة بيديه . تحولت الليالي إلى زجاجات حليب، وأغنيات نوم، وضفائر شعر يُعدها تحت أضواء المطبخ. كانت الصعاب جمة، لكن الضحكات، وحكايات "آن"، وشخصيات الفتيات اللاتي يكبُرن يومًا بعد يوم، نسجت عائلة لا تُقهر.
كانت هناك ضحكة "سارة" المعدية، ودهاء "ناومي"، ورقة "لِيا"... واحدة تلو الأخرى، أصبحن نساءً ناجحات — معلمات، وممرضات، وأمهات — ولم ينسين أبدًا الرجل الذي اختارهن.
واليوم، في عام 2025، ينظر ريتشارد إلى بناته المشرقات وهن مجتمعات حول الطاولة، ويرى المعجزة التي طالما تمنتها "آن".
تذكرنا قصة ريتشارد بقوة الحب، الحب الذي يتجاوز الاختلافات، ويدمل الجراح، ويغير الحياة إلى الأبد ❤️

[#TuckFrump @realTuckFrumper]

I’m happy to share this because I don’t care what side of the aisle you sit on, this is a fact.

Speaker Mike Johnson this is for you.
Concerning Social Security payments, my contributions were made for over 50 years on every salary I received. From my first part time job until I retired. I always had a job.

The Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment?" I'll be part of the one percent to forward this.I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you. Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.

The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a "Federal Benefit Payment." This isn't a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too.

It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
Congress took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking.

They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them. And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer. And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a "benefit", as if we never worked to earn every penny of it.

Just because they borrowed the money doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!

Let's take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government.

Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it. Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.
99% of people won't forward this to their timelines…..will you?

Please, for the sake of our country, repost this.

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

As we kick off the 2026-27 school, please remember:

[Amanda E. Vega @VLJ2605]

Back-to-school season is here, and this is how I’m rolling into campuses… 🎈

An oversized bag full of balloons over my shoulder and my wagon in tow. Proud to be a HumbleISD vendor!!! 🍎✨ VENDOR 36359

#HumbleISD #BackToSchool #BalloonDecor

[Amanda E. Vega @VLJ2605]

Kicking off the school year one balloon at a time! 🎈✨ Two 7ft classic columns to welcome back the amazing teachers at @HumbleISD_SFE . Wishing everyone a fantastic school year! 🍎💙 Proud Humble ISD vendor. #HumbleISD #BackToSchool #BalloonDecor

[Help A Teacher @HelpATeacher]

Reading counts!

[Brad Weinstein @WeinsteinEdu]

The kid who's testing you today isn't actually testing your patience. They're testing whether you'll stay steady when things go sideways, because a lot of adults in their life haven't.

Calm doesn't mean numb, and it doesn't mean nothing gets to you. It means whatever you're feeling in the moment doesn't get to make the decision for you. That's most of classroom management in one sentence, and it applies just as directly in a leadership meeting as it does in a classroom.

Link in first comment.

What actually helps you stay steady when a situation is testing every bit of your patience?