I decided to become a classroom teacher in 2002ish...when Conner was in 1st grade and Caleigh was an adorable, albeit feisty, toddler. I had played with the idea, and talked myself out of it, multiple times. I was blessed to enjoy a couple of years at home when Caleigh was born, and I watched the children of two of my good friends to make ends meet. Truth is, when Conner started school, I found myself there more than I was at home. I had been told for years that I belonged in a classroom--so I ignored the voices in my head and enrolled in a post grad program through LeTourneau University. Somehow, through an unexpected move, Caleigh's terrible twos, and various other life curves...I graduated with a 4.0 just in time to apply for a teaching job in the summer of 2004. Being new to the area, not knowing TOO much about Karnes County--and not believing half of what I heard--I applied at every school in the county and then waited. For about a day. My first interview happened to also be my last. I started teaching 2nd grade in Runge in the Fall of 2004 with a happy heart and stars in my eyes.
My entire 10 year (public school) teaching career has been in Runge. The community has completely captured my heart. I've been asked to come and apply at other schools, but I just haven't been willing to leave. Caleigh has known no other school, Conner has been at RISD since 3rd grade. They love it. But every once in a while--okay, maybe more often than I care to admit--we are visited by enemy #1 of school teacher families. "You just get ____________(special treatment) because your mother/father is a teacher/principal/whatever at the school." Allow me to tell you what my children have received--all thanks to my job.
1. An exhausted, stressed, monetarily strapped parent. There are easier jobs, higher paying jobs, and jobs where I wouldn't spend an unbelievable amount of our own money on a regular basis.
2. A school day that lasts, often, from 7 a.m. to 5:30 or 6 p.m. Those are normal days. It gets worse.
3. Days upon days of time "hanging out" at school during the summer when they were little. I have carried my sleeping 3 year old into school at 9 o'clock at night and she took many a nap in my classroom library on a bean bag.
4. Thankfully it doesn't happen often, but they have even been targeted by a teacher BECAUSE I work there. Those people don't last long at our school, but it stinks when you are an easy target.
5. Excluded from a citizenship award because "You're always getting something." (That was not in Runge by the way, but during my student teaching. SERIOUSLY?)
6. Shooed away by Mom because she is frantically trying to get grades entered into the computer--when all my child wanted was to have story time before bed. Yeah, I haven't forgiven myself for that one. I could still cry about it.
You get the idea. And yet...those cries of "Unfair!" persist. It might surprise you to know that I don't even have an access code to check my kids' grades. If I want a conference, I schedule it. Not that my doing so prevents people from stopping me in the hall to discuss things best left for a conference. I sincerely believe that Conner and Caleigh make good grades in large part because they have been read to since, well, since they were in utero. As often as possible, we still believe in the family dinner table. We have conversations. I try my dead level best to make sure that their assignments are up to date and complete. If they need tutorials...they go. If they are scheduled to take medication, I make sure they take it. If it's a school day and it is at ALL possible, they are present. If there are tryouts for something, GASP! they try out. Sometimes they make it, and sometimes they don't.
I don't know how else to explain that teachers' kids are just like any other kid...when they work hard they succeed, and when they slack off or quit trying, they don't. When I as a parent do what I am supposed to do, their success comes more easily. When I slack off or fail, it shows. So yes, I guess my kids are pretty successful. In spite of the fact that I am a teacher.
