Just Another Day

On any given day, at school, I feel that my role is not only a teacher, but a mom, a friend, a counselor and "the f-ing teacher".

I leave the house at 7:30am as a wife to my husband and a mom to my daughter. I walk into the school building at 7:45am and my roles have changed, a little. When I decided I wanted to go back to school to be a teacher, I never thought about everything else I'd have to be too.

I was going to school to teach kids math & reading, not to talk about their issues (you forget how many issues middle schoolers have) or to hug them. I was going to school to be serious & show kids that learning is important, not sit in my classroom laughing so hard because the students are hilarious & crack me up on a daily basis. I was going to school to learn how to help students succeed, not to tell them their clothes are on backwards and how to dress correctly. I was going to school to have a job that was rewarding & boy did I get that!

These kids range from hilarious to frustrating, but what really gets me is all the extra baggage these kiddos bring to school with them, which is why I'm also a counselor and friend.

When I was in elementary & middle school, I had no idea that the classmate sitting beside me smelled because his parents didn't wash his clothes for him, or that the girl who never had her homework done was more worried about making dinner for her younger siblings, doing their laundry & putting them to bed. This is real life folks! How can one be so naive?

You mean not every one of my classmates had a mom at home who packed their lunch? Or loved them even if they were a pain-in-the-a** sometimes? They didn't have a cooked meal every night, or parents who didn't fight? Really? Their parent never asked about their grades, or helped them study spelling words?

Honestly, growing up, I never was aware of any of the struggles my fellow classmates had. It's typical as a child to assume that their home life is not abnormal, that everyone's is just like theirs.

I'm sure, that maybe one day I would discover this on my own, that life isn't always perfect & that there are children who have BIG issues going on at home. I think that being a teacher has made me experience & learn this faster than normal, or maybe not. Anyway, it's a good wake up call, and has made me appreciate my childhood even more than I already did & how I want to raise Flynne.

But, most importantly, I'm able to do what I can to help these children on a daily basis. Each student/kid is totally different and they may not share what's going on outside of school, but it means a lot when they trust you to lean on. I feel a small success when a child turns to me, or comes and gives me a big hug, or even apologizes for calling me "the f-ing teacher", because deep down, I know they trust me, care about me, and look up to me, not as just their teacher but as a friend too!

It's seeing & talking to these students where you learn that in the end, it is the small things that mean the most.