Linking up with#fiveminutefriday today! Five minutes of uninterrupted writing...no editing. No overthinking. Just write! Today's word is: MOM
This is my fourteenth year as an elementary school teacher. Let's do some math- even though I'm a reading teacher...
14 years= 2,520 days= 17,640 hours= 1,058,400 minutes
That's how much time I've spent with children from the ages of 5-11. All day. Every day. Children pulling repeatedly on my sleeve. Poking me. Stroking my stubbly legs as they sit on the carpet looking up at me innocently. Wiping their noses and touching my books. Sneezing on my face. Puking on my rug (never in my trash can). Crying over nothing. All. Day. Long.
But every once in awhile there's a magical moment. A split second when I'm working so closely with a child; so engrossed in our learning, in our important work. A moment where that child looks up at me, or calls to me excitedly from across the room, "MOM!" We all laugh, as he shakes his head, and quickly says, "I'm mean, Ms. Boyd!" We chuckle and he proceeds to tell me whatever information was so vital...and the spark has gone.
But those moments live on. The connection between us. The feelings of trust and relationship. The community we worked so hard to build. It's still under there, no matter how many years have passed.
In a few weeks I'll drive eight hours to see the second set of "my kids" graduate from high school. I'll watch as those once precocious and maddening students walk across the stage in their same old personal ways. One with swagger, one with class, one with that same mega smile, another still walking up on his tiptoes. They're the same kids who used to call me mom once upon a time.
Even on the tough days, I remember our classroom community, the soft music playing, the joyful sounds of learning, and even without children of my own on Mother's Day, I smile...
See you soon, kids.
