T is for Teaching...

In 2003, I worked for SuperPages.com and was less than satisfied with where my life was going. I had just had a visit with my girly doctor who told me that if I was going to have children, then I should do it before I turned 30. With less than a year before that deadline, I thought to myself, "I just need to do something where I work with children."

I started researching what it would take to be a teacher and was disheartened at the expense of going for an alternative teaching certificate. I prayed about it...God, if you want me to be a teacher, then I know you will provide a way." The VERY NEXT DAY SuperPages' CEO sent an e-mail to everyone in the company announcing an voluntary reduction in force. I looked up and said, "Alright! Answer received..." and I didn't hesitate to take the package that would take care of me financially while I pursued my next adventure.

I spent the next 9 months substitute teaching and attending the Educator Alternative Program. On the final day of our intense summer school program, I drove from Flower Mound, TX, to Queen City, TX, to interview for my first teaching job. I was so excited and nervous that I ran off and left my big-girl grownup shoes at my apartment. I knew Queen City was the place for me and that Charlotte Williams and Steve Holmes were the principals for me to work for when Mrs. Williams put me totally at ease about having to wear flip-flops to my interview.

I spent two years at QC and loved every minute of it. I also spent two years teaching English at a middle school in Flower Mound and loved the students and my fellow teachers. In my excitement about teaching, I thought I would love teaching special education but was proven wrong by the politics that engulfs that arena. I let two of the adult versions of school-yard bullies stress me out and cause me mental trauma. I left teaching, something I loved so dearly.

In six years, every student who entered my classroom became a child of my heart. I was not their mama, but I loved each one of them as a mother would. I taught them English and Reading and, from what I have heard from them over the years, so much more. Some of those first "babies" are now grown and have friended me on FaceBook. I hope I still provide some sort of knowledge to them each day. If I could, I would go back to teaching at QC in a heartbeat and be the teacher I was back then. I miss making a difference teaching.