~and so was I~

~5 years ago today in the mountains of southwestern Colorado~

You know, I never once entertained the notion that I would live in Colorado, let alone teach there.  Not a single time did that vision ever come upon the radar screen.  Yet I was there in 2015 as I finished up my last year as a Colorado teacher at Olathe Elementary School, a small mountain community only a short drive from our home in Montrose.

I happened upon this picture just now, a happy memory of a time on that day 5 years ago.  It shows a very blessed teacher outside on the school parking lot having the time of her life with a first grade class of more than 20 students.  We were learning about bubbles and I don't know how much academia was involved in this particular activity, but quite honestly I don't think I even cared.  All I knew was that the kids were having fun and oh yes.....

So was I.

Fast forward 5 years into the future and here I am.  We are the in the middle of a pandemic and school has been put into a continuous learning model from the safety of our own homes.  The door to the school is locked and it's been 6 weeks since I once was there.  In three weeks more, I will be a retired teacher and probably one who will be a little bit lost at first.  I'm not sure what I will do with life, but I figure the good Lord above already has put that plan into motion.  When the time is right, I'll know exactly what to do.

One of the things that I have been encouraged by others to do is to sit down and write a book about what life has been like for me as a teacher.  I have heard this suggestion many times over the years by well meaning folks who said that I needed to share my experiences with others.  Always before I have dismissed that suggestion, thinking that wouldn't necessarily be what I wanted for myself.  But as time has gone on and with the passage of over 40 years in the classroom with students calling me "teacher", I have begun to change my mind.  I've scribbled down some notes of what I might consider writing about, things that I hope could be readable and make a difference to someone out there.  As I sat down to look at those thoughts a few days ago, the one thing that kept coming back to mind was this.

Relationship building and a sense of classroom community are the most necessary components of a successful school year.  

I have always known that it is important to establish strong, healthy, and viable relationships with students and their families as well.  I would like to think that I have put that cornerstone into place each and every year that I have taught.  I know that in the beginnings as a very young Kansas educator that I had plenty to learn.  It took a couple of years of floundering before I realized that the key to being a great educator was to always include parents and families in the day to day "business" of the classroom.  My sister Sherry, a veteran Oklahoma teacher of over 40 years before she passed away 3 years ago, was a great mentor who taught me the importance of knowing parents and communicating with them.  It was Sherry who reminded me that you don't just check in with moms and dads on parent-teacher conference days.  

You check in with them on the first day of school.

You check in with them early and often.

You check in with them on 100 more good days than you ever do 1 bad one.

I would like to think that I was as good as Sherry was, but the sad truth is that there is no way that I could have been.  Try as I might, her footsteps were just too big to fit into when it came to communicating with the parents of her students.  Sherry used to keep a spiral notebook by the phone in the kitchen of their old home in Altus.  I saw her use it many times as she visited with a mom or dad in the evening about one of her students.  Sherry made it a habit to phone each parent at least once a week to communicate things that were on her mind about each individual student.  I am sure that it was a combination of both congratulations and concerns, but knowing Sherry the way I did, I am sure of one thing.

The phone log would have reflected way more congratulations than there would have ever been concerns.

Sitting at home and teaching the kids of our fifth grade class from my side of the computer screen has reminded me each and every day of the importance of making connections and of building relationships with families, not just students.  It is what has sustained our class and kept us together, even though we are apart from one another.  Fragmented as we might feel, especially when we have a great desire to be together as a group once more, I feel assured that my fifth graders are still learning and will continue to do so in the remaining final days that lie ahead for us in the 2019-2020 school year.

If I do give my remaining time to writing a book, then it will be one of the importance of building relationships and the success that doing so will bring to any teacher's classroom.  I don't have a "PhD" to attach to my last name and I certainly haven't done any clinical studies to prove what I have to say is the truth or works in all situations.  

I only know what I have from my classroom experiences and what is stored in my teacher's heart.

Perhaps that will be enough.

Maybe my final words will make a difference in another teacher's classroom somewhere down the line

.

I promise one thing.

I'll let you know if I finish it.

I had to laugh as I chose this picture to use.  I'm still wearing that same Kansas shirt as I was 5 years ago today.  Our classroom little library has now become the outdoor cupboard for birdseed and small gardening tools.  I miss my students and the joy each day brought us at school.  I check in with them at least twice a week if it is possible.  

I wanted their fifth grade year to be the best one they ever had. 

My only hope is that it came close.