Mrs. B, Mrs. C, and Support

Sometimes, as a teacher, you get lost in your classroom. You forget that other people are teaching, and they forget about you. As teachers, we are pretty self-involved that way. It's almost like your classroom exists outside of reality, and once in...everyone and everything not within the vortex disappears. For mostly this reason, I am shocked when other people comment about my teaching. It seems ridiculous that I would be unaware of their observations, but I mostly ignore people over the age of 13. It is even more ridiculous that, overall, they find me to be a good teacher. My most frequent and vocal support comes from Mrs. B and Mrs. C.

Mrs. B is self-contained sped teacher and is retiring at the end of this year. Mrs. B has been sending her students to my room for reading and math the past 2 years, and has only recently been the person coming with them. She has fallen head-over-heels in love with my classroom. Mrs. B thinks my kids are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and she's convinced I made them that way. I also always thank her for her kind words. This always right before she tells me to become a consultant and use "that technology piece" to make some real money. I don't know how to find the right words to tell her how much her praise means to me.

Mrs. C is a recess aide that helps out for about 15min every other day. I adore this woman. One day she told me she forgot to leave because she was really engaged in the lesson; I told her that long vowels and 3-letter clusters will do that to a person. She actually invites other people in to watch me teach. I was blown away when she asked if that was okay.

I'm not particularly wonderful receiving compliments, so I just assure them that I was blessed and am barely making it through each day with all of my hair still firmly rooted in my scalp. It is really nice to have people think you are great...but the truth is, many many people are far far better than this girl. I can only aspire to be the teacher they think that I am. Oddly enough, it seems like their conviction about me being great has forced me to raise the bar for myself. I don't know how to tell them that they are responsible.