Today, one of my students brought me a yellow watermelon. If you have never had one, they are amazing. Yesterday, one of my students brought me a HUGE pack of Sharpies. (I love sharpies!)
I was sitting today thinking about how different I am now as a teacher as compared to when I first started teaching, especially, at the school where I am. It made me think about the way that I was as a teacher back when I first started.
I taught freshmen and sophomores in my first year at my school and last year my sophomores graduated. This year, my freshmen are graduating. I can't believe that I am about to watch them walk across the stage. These kids dealt with me being pregnant, my mother dying, my teacher licensure paperwork getting lost and then some. I was frustrated many times, I was unreasonable, and honestly, there were times I was just down right mean.
These kids have blossomed into amazing kids. They are smart, funny, kind, generous people. These students are exactly who they should be and where they should be.
I wish I could take more credit for who they have become, but honestly, I am so glad that I didn't have as much to do with it. I hope they learned as much from the lessons I was teaching as they did from the mistakes that I made.
As these students move forward, I wish for them all the same things that I constantly wish for my own children...I wish for them roots enough to feel grounded and confident in where they came from, that they know they have a "home base", but I also wish for them wings enough to fly high and soar to new places, to meet new people and to allow themselves to become new people.
I cannot wait to see who they become and where they go.
For Thanksgiving 2014, we went to the Peabody Hotel with my Mother-in-Law and her boyfriend. It was a great meal and a beautifully decorated hotel! Everyone had plenty to eat and had a great time!
