Same Teacher, Different Classroom

I've been asked many times before, in years past and even now, and it's always the same question: 

Do you ever miss teaching?  Do you miss being at school? 

Friends, family, former colleagues, you name it.  Anyone who knows me and knows the educational path I pursued wants to know if I ever feel understimulated, bored, or displaced because I am not "practicing my craft."  And do I sense that I'm not doing what I was meant to do? 

This is my answer.

I don't miss teaching because it has never left me.  The classroom I report to every day is my home, my workplace, and my world with my family and my children.  Each day, they are my students and they are also my teachers.  I still make lesson plans and to-do lists--and I still don't finish them.  I am stocked with paper, pencils, books, crayons, grilled cheese sandwiches, and anything else that could ever be classified as an instrument of learning. 

I teach music and dance as we sing If You're Happy and You Know It and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes for the 11th time in one morning. 

I coach P.E. as we run outside chasing balls and butterflies, or swing upside down on a bar.  And then again in the afternoon while we're picking up knocked over trash cans and building obstacle courses out of family room furniture. 

I teach art while we color pictures of Mickey Mouse, and then patiently exhale and agree that yes--blue crayon on a yellow table does, in fact, make green. 

Fine motor skills are practiced when we construct itsy bitsy spiders out of paper plates, or when we make Patty the Pig puppets out of felt. 

I teach math as we count the blocks we stack.  And as we eat each Goldfish cracker, we practice our numbers backwards.  We count kisses, add laughter, multiply messes, divide laundry, and subtract vanilla wafers from the box.  It's a unique order of operations over here.

I teach reading and language almost every waking moment of our day.  And it is the cornerstone of how we say and show each other that we love one another.  While reading books together, we laugh and we also cry (I'm sure you're familiar with this gosh darn tear jerker.)

Seriously, every. single. time.

I teach science when we observe water boiling or demonstrate the effects of helium on the human voice.  I teach about changes in matter, like the solid food I served him for dinner greeting me again at the end of its digestive journey.  And then once more when day surrenders to night and our sky is freckled with a million stars.  One of which is named after our son, thank you Aunt Michele and Uncle Rik!

I teach social studies wherever we go, as we learn about people who are like us and those who are different.  A shopping mall is a perfect place to study culture and societal norms, don't you think?    

The best thing about being a teacher then was that I always benefited from learning myself.  And it's still the same now.  I'm always trying to figure out how to solve some sort of puzzle.  And some days I feel like I'm nailing it, while others have me searching in the Lost and Found for my mind. 

But if there's one thing I'd like to pass on to my own kids, it is that you will always be learning, so learn to be okay with being a perpetual beginner.  For once you are an expert, it's time to move on and find something new to learn again.  Like a Lift-the-Flap book, there's always another surprise ahead of you.  Except if Jackson already tore the flap off, in which case--then you saw it coming.  

The last thing Jackie says in this video is "more."  And that could not make me happier.  I love that he craves knowledge and learning as much as I do.  And every day that I'm able, I will give more.   

I will always be a teacher.  I feel like it's just a part of who I am.  And who knows, maybe one day I'll be back in the classroom.  But for now, I am enjoying this part of my life.  And I cannot think of a better way to utilize my skills, my energy, and my passion than that which comes from being a mom.