Why I teach

Today was meet the teacher night.

Which means it was the first time I would meet my new 5th grade babies. My students could come see my room, meet me, get their supply lists, and basically stop freaking out about their teacher now that they have met me. (Sometimes I strike the fear into the hearts of the little ones. I guess I had a long run being stern.)

So my room was ready - all decorated, everything organized, to-do lists made for tomorrow. And so the clock turned to five, and they started coming.

I'm in my room, greeting parents and kiddos, getting generally excited because a) these parents look interested and ask questions b) the kiddos generally look excited and c) the students are so small, they are like peanuts...

And then I see a mother running into my room in sheer joy. She runs up to me and gives me a HUGE hug and is yelling, in her broken English, "YES! YES!"

Maria, we'll call her, has three children. I had her oldest, Jerry, my first year teaching. Her oldest had to be the "man" of the house because their father had left. She became one of my favorite parents, because she was involved with her oldest son. She would also bring her two young ones around, and we ended up getting her baby daughter some speech help (she was not school-aged yet and we found her services) and worked with her middle son's reading.

She was amazing, and she loves me because I pushed her oldest to the limits. He was struggling with reading and English in 6th grade - now, as a high schooler, he's in all of the advanced classes, on the football team, and is generally an amazing success.

And she RAN into my room, screaming "YES," and I realized that I now get to teach the middle brother. She was practically in tears, with her middle son grinning ear to ear, as she told all of the parents in the room that "Miss L is the greatest teacher in the world. I am the happiest woman alive." (I am not kidding.)

And this is why I teach. Because I change lives. And impact families. And become a part of this community.