Teacher Appreciation Week

     As I reflect back on my many years of teaching, I think about the lives that have touched me.  Those beautiful young children who hung on my every word.  So many little people that I carry with me wherever I go.  I have decided that it it not I who deserve any appreciation, but the families who have shared their most precious gifts of all...their children, with me.  For that I will always be grateful and appreciative.
     The struggles, both my own and the children's.  The laughs.  The "a-ha" moments when the lightbulb comes on.  These, I will carry with me.  I thought I would add some highlights:

• Principal:  Do you know where (student) is?  Me:  Yes.  He asked to go to the restroom.  Principal:  Go look (with a smile on her face).  I go to the restroom and there is (student), singing at the top of his lungs, standing on the toilet, stirring the water with his belt.
• This precious child, at the end of kindergarten:  Student:  I was kinda crazy when I first came here.  Me:  Yes.  You were afraid and didn't understand how much fun kindergarten can be.  Student:  My mamma said she knew you could tame me!
• The superintendent of school's daughter was in my class in one district.  We were talking about communities and houses.  I shared that I grew up on a farm.  Her mother shared with me, at conferences, that her daughter told her I was born in a barn!
• The angry, stubborn boy who would just flip out and the work we all did to help him.  When our school closed and I was transferred to a different building in the district, he came to that building, too, because I was his "other mother."  (He lived out-of-district at the time and his mother worked for the district).  He and his family even came to see us after we moved away!
• The scary, prison guard parent in a former district, who's actions led to stricter security guidelines for our building.  YIKES!!
• The Christmas cards I continue to get for the families of former students.
• Dinner with former students, no going to college away from home, but close to me, when they are feeling homesick.
• The little girl who threw her math workbook (yes, in kindergarten) across the room, stuck her tongue out at me, and stated,  "I HATE math!"  This same child, at the end of the year, was one of the best and brightest at math.  When I reminded her of our first day with the workbooks, she said, "Yeah.  About that.  I don't know what I was thinking."
• The countless sporting events and dance recitals.
• All of the hugs from former students as they are walking down the hall.
• The relationship with not just the students, but their families, as well!

     So, as Teacher Appreciation Week approaches, I don't feel that it is I who should be appreciated.  It is the students that I appreciate.  For their years of laughter, sadness, support, stubbornness , and joy.  This is why I became a teacher.  This is what I live for...every day!