Tick Tock…

“What’s something you waited a long time for?”

I waited years to become a teacher; not just any teacher, but the teacher I am today.

I’ve known since middle school that teaching is what I wanted to do when it was time for me to have a career. I knew I’d go to college to teach (I even knew which college I would attend- my dad took me to the University of Maine every 2 years since I was 5- I knew I’d be a black bear). I knew I’d use flair pens, I knew I’d label everything, I knew I’d have bright white boards with all the colorful expo markers to write my lessons with. I knew I’d set my classroom up with plenty of space to work in groups (because I always loved when my teachers let us work in groups). I knew my desk area would be welcoming so that my students could and would want to work with me there-

I had everything in mind of what I wanted.

I started volunteering in classrooms when I was in high school and through college. I worked at day cares and I tutored. I did so much to plump up my resume to make sure future prospective employers knew I was ready- knew I wanted the job in their school.

I remember the day I got the phone call excepting me as a teacher in the Augusta School District. I was in my student teaching classroom, and my phone started buzzing on the desk. I stepped outside in the hall with an anxious, nervous, but half excited smile on my face; my mentor teacher giddy and hopping up and down beside me.

“We would love to have you as part of our Gilbert family!” – words that, even now, blur my eyes with the sweetest tears. I choked back an emotional “thank you” and hung up the phone.

I was embraced with arms that taught me everything I needed to know about being the best kindergarten teacher I could be. (I truly could not have been blessed with a better mentor teacher.) We hugged and cried and jumped in that small town school hallway.

I was 22 years old, just graduating college, went through 6 (“failed”) interviews, and was now going to be in charge of 20 something 5 year olds.

Here I am now, in my 6th year of teaching, still at Gilbert school, but now teaching 3rd grade. I didn’t know I’d ever want to leave kindergarten. The thought just happened one day, and within a month I was signing papers to teach third grade the following year. This is now my second year, and I am continuing my own education so that I can teach even higher- my goal now is high school ELA.

I waited so long to have this job. I waited so long to feel like I truly belong somewhere. I waited so long to create connections with students and their families in and out of the classroom.

You see that girl in that picture? She dressed like me for “Career Day” because she wants to be me when she grows up. She has her mom text me when she thinks of me. I attend her soccer games, and she visits with Rello. I had her in kindergarten, and she wants me again next year in third grade. My students aren’t just my “students”. They are my “kids”. They are the reason I get up every morning. I think about them when I leave, when I’m out and see something that reminds me of them. I don’t have the relationship with all parents like I do with this specific child (could you imagine?! lol); but the ones I do are the closest thing I have to having my own children, and I am so incredibly lucky to have connections with students and families that allow me to share parts of life outside of school.

I am the teacher I am today because of my mentors, my own dedication, and the students, parents, and staff members I work with;

and I could not be happier with where I am.