I am the luckiest to be a teacher! I absolutely LOVE kids. Their sweet spirits bring me joy each day. I love their smiles and their funny comments, they are the BEST! Since I am not married and do not have kids I feel especially blessed to have a job as a teacher where I get to be around kids and get to be an influence for good in their lives. I get to teach them, I get to make them smile and best of all I get to make them laugh - that's my favorite (and it happens a lot in my class).
I have to share a story with you so you can understand just how great this all is:
A couple of days ago our school choirs performed their show for the school. Their theme this year was songs from T.V. shows. They interspersed some short skits and acting with the songs. One of the skits had to do with The Beverly Hillbillies. A boy was getting in trouble for acting out in school. His parents were reprimanding him when his sister spoke up and said "I know why he has been getting in trouble at school, it's because he has a crush on his teacher Miss Paul." (Yep. That is definitely my name, and yes all my students turned to look at me and were giggling) He then retorted with a comment about how beautiful the teacher was (one of my kids turned to me and said, "yep, you are.") and then another comment about how good she smelled.
Good times in elementary school! My kids kept looking toward me with sheepish little smiles for quite a while after that skit. When one of my students who was in the choir came back to sit with our class she said "Miss Paul, I was just watching you that whole time to see if you were blushing." I have to say I LOVE my job!
This year has been great in some ways and it has also been very hard in others. It has been nice to be teaching for the second year and feel like I know what I am doing a little more. It has been nice to have techs who have been miracle workers and have helped me so much! I have some amazing kids in my class this year who have been so fun to teach. My class this year thinks I am funny and the girls comment on my clothes and write notes to me telling me how pretty I am. They also think that I am awesome at soccer! I played with them one day (yep...in my skirt that I had worn to school that day) and scored a goal. One of my girls came up to me and said "Miss Paul, I didn't know you were a soccer player." In my head I was saying "That's because I'm not". But to them I am, so I am just playing along.
As I am putting together the end of year slide show that I will give to my students on the last day of school tears come to my eyes. I have come to love these kids and I am going to miss them. They are a light and joy in my life!
I just have to remember that taking some time to take care of Katrina this summer will be good for me. Sometimes I spend WAY too much time working because of the love that I have for my kiddos. Time not teaching this summer will be therapeutic and it will only help me to be an even better teacher next year.
There are 5 and a half days of school left and I am going to enjoy every single one of those days with my kiddos! There will be lots of laughing and lots of smiles and maybe a few screams when I tell scary stories in the dark during our "2nd Grade Camp Out".
