~upon remembering that I have been a kid too~

     I had a remembrance the other day of a time so very long ago.  It was 1960 and the very first day of school in September.   My kindergarten year at a little school back home in south central Kansas called Burrton Elementary found my best friend Shirley and I seated at the very same round table.  I swear, we were both trying to be good little 5-year old girls while our dear teacher Mrs. Marmont was talking to the class.  Evidently we became bored with what she was saying and began to roll our brand new pencils back and forth to each other across the smooth table top.  It didn't take long for Josephine Marmont to see what was going on and without missing a beat, she came right over and snatched up my brand new blue, fat pencil and took it away from me.  Forever.  
     You know, it wasn't very funny to me back then but I had to laugh to myself when I thought of it last week at school as I too found myself taking away a pencil from one of "the 22" for doing  the very same thing.  Kids back in 1960 were no different than kids of today in 2014 in so many ways and it always does me well to stop and consider that when sometimes I become frustrated over small things that can and do happen during the course of a school day.  I used to be one of them and I need to remind myself of that all the time.  I grew up and so will they.
     We've been having a lot of fun reading the books of the late author Laura Ingalls Wilder in our classroom.  In the beginning of the year we read her first book, "Little House in the Big Woods" and now we are halfway through the book, "Farmer Boy".  Even though my students  are only 6 and 7-year olds they are not too young to hear stories about a life now so very long, long ago.  Many concepts have to be explained to them because their little minds cannot imagine yet a world where there was no electricity, cars, internet, computers, televisions, cell phones and the modern conveniences that we have today.  It was interesting to see the looks on their faces as I explained that back in those days kids went to school together in a one room setting with a single teacher being in charge of an entire class of students of all ages.  Laura's stories are rich in vocabulary words and life experiences, making them a great choice to read to young people.  The mark of a good series of books is that people would still be reading them, over 75 years from when they were first written.  It seems as if I've read them a thousand times over to students over the course of the nearly past 4 decades of being a teacher yet each time I read them, I find myself learning something new.  I like that.
     Our school year is moving so quickly by us and soon the holidays will be approaching.  Before we know it, we will all be home for our Christmas break and when we return to school in January a new semester will begin.  Time flies when you are living life.  I try my best to make each moment at school count for something meaningful each day and I encourage "the 22" to do the same.  My wish is that somehow we would get more time together but we do the very best we can with the time that we have been given.  They will make it.  They are learning and so am I.
     The school year of 2014-2015 is my fifth one past my original retirement from education back in 2009-2010.  Someone asked me once why I retired in the first place and my answer was that I didn't know.  Yet others have been curious as to why I went back into the classroom five years ago.  Now that question was one I knew the answer to.  I just missed the kids too much and I found out within four months that this "retirement concept" wasn't for everyone, especially me.  The latest thing that folks would like to know is how much longer I intend to do this and I always have the same response.  As long as I can make a difference and be an effective teacher, then I would choose to remain for a few more years.  I've said many times before that in my "post retirement" years I have finally become the teacher that I wanted to be all along. Hard to explain that one but it's a nice feeling, believe me.
     The little girl who was rolling her pencil back and forth on the table that first day of school 54 years ago never knew she wanted to be a teacher.  She came to school each day, ready to learn and that was just what she did.  I have given my last 37 years to the field of education and I have absolutely no regrets upon having made that decision.  I have taught students in Haven, Yoder and Hutchinson, Kansas and now I teach at the best school in the state of Colorado, Olathe Elementary.  Teaching is not a profession that will have made me a wealthy person in terms of money earned but that never mattered to me any way.  I get my "bonus checks" all the time and those are the ones that really count.  Oh and by the way, you were able to read this blogpost?   Be sure to say "thank you" to a teacher :)

The little kids from Josephine Marmont's kindergarten class at Burrton Grade School, 1960.  My good friend Shirley is on the third row, far right standing directly behind our teacher.  As for me, I'm on the bottom row (where else would I be?) on the far right side.  My teacher's hand is lovingly placed upon the collar of my dress.  Really, I was a good little girl most of the time except for when I found myself enjoying the sound of a rolling pencil.