The Heart of a Teacher

After 91 days in school, first semester grades are done and we're 9 days and counting from our annual 100th Day celebration in kindergarten.  Of all the festivity in the classroom, including a winter party, Dr. Seuss week, a Valentine exchange and an end of the year bash, the 100th Day is my favorite!  Lately I've had the mid-year blues from a growing list of end of the year expectations and a decreasing number of days off and I've been particularly discouraged as a teacher in the recent weeks.  So, it is refreshing and encouraging to reflect on how far we've come in just the first 100 days of school, not to mention the first days of a 13 year endeavor. 

If you asked me what I do as a teacher, I would say that I serve 5 and 6 year olds for a living, the best paying gig on the planet.  By my calulations, the 100th day represents 700 classroom hours with my adorable clients with services including hundreds of shoes tied, hundreds of backpacks stuffed/zipped and organized, hundreds of bandaids applied, hundreds of lunch items opened, hundreds of stories read, hundreds (maybe 1000's) of pencils sharpened, hundreds of crocodile tears dried and hundreds of questions answered (100's of questions daily). 

When I think about why I invest every fiber of myself to this calling, leaving my 3 daughters to get ready for school and eat breakfast without Mom each morning and to arrive home to an empty house each afternoon, it's the students and what takes place in those first 100 days of school. Boys who didn't know their letter names or sounds are reading and writing with confidence.  Girls who wouldn't speak above a whisper are now fielding questions from classmates with assertiveness.  Students who couldn't or wouldn't pay attention for more than a minute are now focused and motivated to learn.  Daily I get to see an understanding of numbers, letters, words, sentences click for 20 precious individuals.  I've figured out what makes each child tick and how to motivate areas of difficulty.  For this reason, it's time to celebrate and to rejoice in the classroom and to put an end to those mid-year blues.

Comments I hear quite often (even yesterday) include, "You kindergarten teachers are so __ (fill in the blank)"  "I don't know how you do it."  Franky, as I step into the mid-forties, working alongside women much younger, cooler and more energetic than me, I have days where I think, "I don't know how long I can do this."  For this reason, I begin each day with prayers of thanksgiving and humble dependence, asking the Lord to help me love and serve my students well-- for His glory.