Yesterday I received a message from the parent of a former student of mine. In response, I sat down and wrote this blog entry for my other blog, Teachinmama. It's only a little horsey, but I still thought I'd share it here this morning.
I loved being a teacher. If my kids were all grown and I couldn't be a stay at home mama, then I wanted to be in a classroom with kids. So, when our youngest child, Cole, started kindergarten, I got my teaching certification and began my career.
Last night I was contacted by the mother of Kirsten S., one of my former students. And Patti's message has really gotten me thinking.
I found it really interesting that Patti mentioned the read alouds we had done every day in class. Kirsten's class had loved that part of our day, so much that they used to crowd around me as I read to them. I wrote this about her class in a 2015 blog post in my other blog, Teachinmama:
"Can we sit close to you?" one of my classes at Yankee Ridge asked me once when I gathered them together to read. "Sure!" I replied, and then to my surprise, I was literally surrounded - children standing behind my chair so they could see the text as I read, others leaning against me, some kneeling at my side... an entire class sitting as close as they could get. I was not expecting the children to practically pile on top of me. (And they did that from that point on until we finished the book.)
Me reading aloud to Kirsten's class. (Can these kiddos really all be turning 30 this year??)
Kirsten S., a Yankee Ridge gal, once got so into the story that she literally jumped up while I was reading and shouted, "Nooooooo!!" I love that memory of a girl so caught up in the book that she forgot herself. I put a post-it there to help me remember, and I always share that with my current class.
A Wrinkle in Time is my favorite children's book, and after my own 5th grader teacher read it aloud to me, I vowed that if ever I became a teacher, I would read it aloud to my students. And I did - to every single class I taught.
My class was always welcome to sign the books we'd read aloud; this is A Wrinkle in Time signed by Kirsten and her classmates.
John S., one of Kirsten's classmates, has also stayed in touch. But he remembers something different than Kirsten from our time together in school.
John is the one sort of imitating The Scream by Edvard Munch in the picture of the kids and me reading together. (Or he may be channeling a more modern Kevin McCallister from Home Alone!)
Read alouds and horses aside, there are other things I would hope I was able to do for my students. Sometimes I wonder if I did and interactions like these two with former families give me insights into what they remember, what they took away from their time in my class.
Dolly Parton expressed similar feelings about her own life starting at 4:48 in this video.
"I try to be an inspiration; I hope to be. I always want to try to do things to uplift people." (This is the video from when my friend Kathy won Dolly's Chasing Rainbows award.)
I had 500+ students during my career. Some have gone on to have happy, comfortable lives. Others have had major challenges - addictions, the loss of a child, debilitating illness, prison sentences, and even death.
My time with them was relatively short and, I hope, positive and happy. For those who have chosen to remain in contact with me, I still have an opportunity to support them, to let them know that I still care about them.
Math and Reading and Science and so on are important subjects to learn. But what I hope my students best learned from me was that I cared.
And, that I still do.
