I've been absent for a while... "I've been busy" would most definitely be an understatement. I started school again about three weeks ago. I'm currently taking three classes at the local Community College to finish up my AA. I know it's been a while, but now or never is how I look at it.
Working full time, three children, and college is draining but in the long run it will be the best thing I have done for myself.
After the next few semesters, I would like to move into a University and finish my degree in Education. I want to teach. I want to be in a classroom with kids - but not the "can you tie my shoe Mrs. Danish?" kids... I want to teach high school.
When I tell someone that, they look at me like I have two heads. They immediately retort with some line about guns and knives. I shrug them off and say, "Can you honestly picture me teaching first graders?" My personality and sense of humor would damage them beyond repair, although I'm sure the school counselor would appreciate the job security.
I think my dream started when I was very young. My mom is a teacher and I would spend my afternoons in her classroom.
My mom has been teaching for as long as I can remember. She would bring home her papers to be graded and would hand me a red ink pin. She would let me draw the smiley faces on them or write the 100% on the upper right corners. She would ask my sister and I to come and help decorate her bulletin boards and help cut out shapes and letters for her calendars.
I remember lining up my dolls and I would teach them lessons from old workbooks my mom handed down to me. My sister and I would spend hours in our basement sitting at the white table and ice cream chairs my Nan Nan bought us. The smell of old books and moth balls would linger in my senses, and to this day their smells remind me of those moments. We would take turns being the teacher and the student.
I wanted to be - and have always wanted to be -just like my mom. She doesn't teach high school, instead she teaches VE (Varying Exceptionalities). Some know it better as the "special kids". I don't know how she does it; she works every day with an age range of third to sixth graders, all with their own varying degree of mental and emotional disturbances. I think it's her sense of humor that keeps her going. She has a fantastic sense of humor.
She calls everyday and we talk. Sometimes she will vent about her day, the kids, and the crazy parents she has to deal with. One of my favorite stories is the one with the two brothers. The day before, they fed their cat a ham their mother had made, so in turn she sent them to school with cat food sandwiches. She laughed as she said she could not figure out what smelled so bad in her classroom until it was lunchtime. That must have been one interesting phone call home.
I remember another story she told me years ago. A child in her class walked up to her with a pencil and said, "Mrs. Lucy, the voices in my head are telling me to stab you with this pencil". She said she just looked at him and said, "Honey, you tell those voices to shut up. Now go sit down".
That's the kind of teacher she is. She is caring, funny, and NO nonsense. That to me is what a teacher should be. Like a mother should be. Like the mom I have.
