I bet I'd be a great teacher If. . .

My daughters have stayed with my parents this week (out of state) for the back-to-school work week and I've spent most of my hours at school or in meetings. I've enjoyed the time in my classroom as well as the energy to really focus on my job. I am pleased that I got the room set up for the students to come back; I even had time to cut and arrange fresh flowers for when parents and students arrive.  

Tonight, on a Friday evening I'm pretty sure I was the last person out of the building at 6:50 and I kept thinking to myself what a great teacher I would be if my circumstances were different, if I didn't have other responsibilities to rush off to in the afternoons.

 If things were different, would every lesson I taught would be better because I would have hours and hours after school to craft it perfectly?

 I don't regret having my own children, I just sometimes regret that it means I have less time to spend at school and my ego tells me I could be better. ( I also regret that I have to work and wish I had more time to be a better mom) Yet the grace of perspective washes over me. I realize that yes, maybe my standardized data and differentiated lessons (teacher jargon) would be better, but being a mother might enhance my teaching in other ways.

I love the quote, "life is about using the whole box of crayons." I believe that children need all kinds of adults in their life and so it is true along their educational journey. Students thrive with the teachers whose lessons are always engaging with impeccable class-management;  they need the young superstars who devote hours to their career, furthering their own education. Kids need creative technology-savy instructors.  Sages with stories will make lasting impacts, too. There are all types of crayons in a box full of teachers.  I'd like to think kids also need teachers who are also moms juggling to get it all done with a heart for children as well as for the stories of the past.  I understand that both kids and parents struggle to fit it all in, because I'm living it. This is precisely the reason I'm not able to spend the hours on my job I could, yet I'd like to think kids need that understanding, too.


Like I've said before, I'm not a great teacher; I would like to think I am a good teacher. I am not a great mom, either.  While I don't get to spend as much time on my lessons or in my classroom as I would if I wasn't a mother moving on to that second shift in the afternoon, squeezing in a workout for myself, maybe what I get by living my life is just the heart and mind kids need along with fabulous lessons.   Would I be a better teacher if I didn't have my own daughters and the need to work out daily and I'd spend my free time after school planning (volunteering my time). Maybe; maybe not. Being a mother changes my heart and mind in ways that hours of hours of planning never could.