Remembering

As my daughter has begun her first week of substitute teaching it reminds me of my first teaching job. I remember that some kids showed up on the work day and started talking to me and I couldn't understand a single word they spoke. Little did I know that that was the least of my problems.

I remember leaving that class every day after rearranging my seating chart just one more time, thinking that I had to figure this job out! How to get them quiet, clean, fed, out to recess, in from recess, keep them awake, help them get along, what to do all day, what not to do! I sometime still wonder if they ever learned to read.

I would get on the freeway after a long, frustrating day and forget to get off at my exit. I would get up the next day and for some reason always feel hopeful that this day would be better somehow. Maybe it was. I know the other staff members had bets placed on the date I might resign but I had no intention. For some reason I just kept coming back and kept trying to figure out how to do this job. I had never had a job I couldn't do so I just kept at it.

They even let me come back the next year and somehow it seemed better. To start with I had a reading program, all new shiny and ready for use. I had some level of respect from my colleagues just because I came back. I didn't feel like I had been given the roll of kids with the stacked deck. I also had just a drop of experience that went a long way. In fact the second year I didn't change my seating chart every day, every week, not even every month. It didn't have to do with the seats just me.

So as I think of Becky, I hope even when she has a hard day that she still will have hope. Even when her feet ache, her heart aches, and her head aches that she takes on her next assignment with an optimistic hope. I know teaching isn't for everybody but there is nothing greater than a great day at school.