Day 16 : Not Forgetting Teachers : Part 1
Ah, another series within a series. This is part 1 in a 5 part series about teachers. In the subsequent posts, I am going to be writing about memorable teachers I've had in the past. I want to challenge you to take some time to remember how teachers have influenced your life and take a few moments to thank them. Teaching is a thank-less job and teachers know this, but that doesn't mean that they should never be thanked. Believe me, a thank you letter or Facebook message sent to your 4th grade teacher or history professor will make them feel like they got a million dollar bonus. Ok, a million dollar bonus would be awesome, but to know that their life's work has made a positive impact on their students is priceless.
Tomorrow is my "last day" as an employee of my school district. Since the beginning of the school year I've been on maternity leave and my resignation is effective at the end of the day tomorrow. With this finality to my tenure as a teacher, I am making it a point to not forget how I ended up here.
I've wanted to be a teacher since I was in third grade watching Mrs. Chandler teach us multiplication. I can remember sitting in my seat, looking at the basketball goal on the wall indicating which multiplication tables each student had mastered. Even though I was sure that I'd never actually reach the top, I thought to myself, "I think I'd like to be a teacher. I could teach kids to multiply and make cool bulletin boards." I loved playing school at home {my husband is rolling his eyes at this part - I mean who plays school???} and I always wanted to be the teacher. In fifth grade, I'd choose staying inside and helping my teacher grade and file papers over going out to play kickball any day. I was a sick sick kid. There's just something about school supplies, rectangular cafeteria pizza, and the buzz of learning that's always made me feel at home.
My path to becoming a teacher wasn't the "go to college and major in education" path that most teachers take. No, mine was more of a "teachers don't make any money, so major in business, but move to the Czech Republic after you graduate and teach children how to speak English, reawaken your love for teaching, then come back to the states, get a job as a teacher assistant, an intervention teacher, an interim teacher, get your Master's degree, then be a full-time, full-paid teacher." It's a long sentence, but an even longer story which I will spare you of unless you want to go get coffee with me and then I'll tell you the whole thing.
I've worked in four different schools and in four different grade levels and I wouldn't have chosen another path if I had it to do over. It is hard work and, no, you don't get paid near what you're worth, but I got to tell and show kids what I thought they were worth. every. single. day.
For as much and as long as I've wanted to be a teacher, I've wanted to be a mother more. I feel like I've mothered all my life - baby dolls, sisters, brothers, cousins, etc - whether they wanted it or not. I remember when Judah was born thinking, "I have loved you all my life." Every moment of my life, I think, had prepared me to be a mother.
So when the two worlds collided, teaching and motherhood, my world was rocked. Never had I wanted to leave the classroom as badly as I did after my first baby was born. Every day was a battle. I know that not a single week went by that I didn't cry on my way to work. I hated that I was giving the best part of myself, my days, my thoughts to my job, when I really wanted to give everything to being a wife and a mother. I didn't like that the people whom I loved most in the world were getting my second best. So, I prayed like a woman with her hair on fire for God to provide a way for me to stay home.
I prayed and begged for over a year, daily, without fail. I was fairly certain that God had stopped listening to me. He didn't hear my prayers for sleep nor for a way to quit my job. I was exhausted, unhappy, and trying to understand why a deaf God put a crazy-deep desire in my heart to mother my children in a full-time way.
God - he's funny sometimes. He just knows, you know? He knows the perfect timing, the perfect placing, the perfect ways. With. Out. Fail. The way my staying-at-home came to be is something that I could never have planned. In fact, I did try to plan it. I even wrote it down in the Notes on my iPhone. But that's a story for another day.
Our God is able to do far more abundantly beyond what we ask or think. And I am grateful that my life isn't controlled and guided by my lowly thoughts and ideas.
At the end of the school year last year, God opened the path for me to be able to stay at home after Ezra was born. And as much as I wanted to be home with my babies, I actually hesitated for a moment. For, you see, God had surrounded me with an amazingly talented group of teachers who had become my friends and my family. He put me in a community full of bright students whom I loved deeply. When worlds collide and paths split, there is a cost in choosing one way. Thankfully, my wonderful school family cheered for me and encouraged me as I chose to leave full-time teaching. Even tonight, writing these words, I am in tears remembering the incredible group of educators who are still deep in the trenches, telling and showing students what they are worth. Every. Single. Day. You are all amazing and I love you.
Thank you, friends and family, for loving me down this path - for telling me that there will be no regrets in choosing this one. You have all made me a better person - wife, mother, and teacher.
And with that, don't forget to take time this weekend to find and thank your teachers and your children's teachers. I'll be doing that here for the next 4 days.
Some of my classrooms over the years.
I have more, but I didn't want to post any student pictures without permission.
Tomorrow is my "last day" as an employee of my school district. Since the beginning of the school year I've been on maternity leave and my resignation is effective at the end of the day tomorrow. With this finality to my tenure as a teacher, I am making it a point to not forget how I ended up here.
I've wanted to be a teacher since I was in third grade watching Mrs. Chandler teach us multiplication. I can remember sitting in my seat, looking at the basketball goal on the wall indicating which multiplication tables each student had mastered. Even though I was sure that I'd never actually reach the top, I thought to myself, "I think I'd like to be a teacher. I could teach kids to multiply and make cool bulletin boards." I loved playing school at home {my husband is rolling his eyes at this part - I mean who plays school???} and I always wanted to be the teacher. In fifth grade, I'd choose staying inside and helping my teacher grade and file papers over going out to play kickball any day. I was a sick sick kid. There's just something about school supplies, rectangular cafeteria pizza, and the buzz of learning that's always made me feel at home.
My path to becoming a teacher wasn't the "go to college and major in education" path that most teachers take. No, mine was more of a "teachers don't make any money, so major in business, but move to the Czech Republic after you graduate and teach children how to speak English, reawaken your love for teaching, then come back to the states, get a job as a teacher assistant, an intervention teacher, an interim teacher, get your Master's degree, then be a full-time, full-paid teacher." It's a long sentence, but an even longer story which I will spare you of unless you want to go get coffee with me and then I'll tell you the whole thing.
I've worked in four different schools and in four different grade levels and I wouldn't have chosen another path if I had it to do over. It is hard work and, no, you don't get paid near what you're worth, but I got to tell and show kids what I thought they were worth. every. single. day.
For as much and as long as I've wanted to be a teacher, I've wanted to be a mother more. I feel like I've mothered all my life - baby dolls, sisters, brothers, cousins, etc - whether they wanted it or not. I remember when Judah was born thinking, "I have loved you all my life." Every moment of my life, I think, had prepared me to be a mother.
So when the two worlds collided, teaching and motherhood, my world was rocked. Never had I wanted to leave the classroom as badly as I did after my first baby was born. Every day was a battle. I know that not a single week went by that I didn't cry on my way to work. I hated that I was giving the best part of myself, my days, my thoughts to my job, when I really wanted to give everything to being a wife and a mother. I didn't like that the people whom I loved most in the world were getting my second best. So, I prayed like a woman with her hair on fire for God to provide a way for me to stay home.
I prayed and begged for over a year, daily, without fail. I was fairly certain that God had stopped listening to me. He didn't hear my prayers for sleep nor for a way to quit my job. I was exhausted, unhappy, and trying to understand why a deaf God put a crazy-deep desire in my heart to mother my children in a full-time way.
God - he's funny sometimes. He just knows, you know? He knows the perfect timing, the perfect placing, the perfect ways. With. Out. Fail. The way my staying-at-home came to be is something that I could never have planned. In fact, I did try to plan it. I even wrote it down in the Notes on my iPhone. But that's a story for another day.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9 (NASB)
Our God is able to do far more abundantly beyond what we ask or think. And I am grateful that my life isn't controlled and guided by my lowly thoughts and ideas.
At the end of the school year last year, God opened the path for me to be able to stay at home after Ezra was born. And as much as I wanted to be home with my babies, I actually hesitated for a moment. For, you see, God had surrounded me with an amazingly talented group of teachers who had become my friends and my family. He put me in a community full of bright students whom I loved deeply. When worlds collide and paths split, there is a cost in choosing one way. Thankfully, my wonderful school family cheered for me and encouraged me as I chose to leave full-time teaching. Even tonight, writing these words, I am in tears remembering the incredible group of educators who are still deep in the trenches, telling and showing students what they are worth. Every. Single. Day. You are all amazing and I love you.
Thank you, friends and family, for loving me down this path - for telling me that there will be no regrets in choosing this one. You have all made me a better person - wife, mother, and teacher.
And with that, don't forget to take time this weekend to find and thank your teachers and your children's teachers. I'll be doing that here for the next 4 days.
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This is the sixteenth post in the series 31 Days of Not Forgetting.
If you'd like to read previous posts in the series, click here and scroll to the bottom.
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