Wish Me Luck!

I'm scheduling this post to publish at 7:50 AM on the first day of school. As it publishes, I will be meeting my new charges at my new school site. I am, as ever on the first day, excited, nervous, and hopeful.

The staff meetings are finished for now, and I will be getting down to what I love most about my job--interacting with the kids, watching them learn, helping them be better citizens, being a role model. So many people tell me, "Oh, I couldn't teach--I don't have the patience!" It does take patience, and empathy. It takes a hearty sense of humor--a lot of teachers I have known are hugely sarcastic--and a love of the ridiculous.

There have been some shitty days in my career, but mostly, there have been great moments, like those moments when I'm really into my lesson, the kids are engaged, and I think, "Holy cow, they're paying me to teach music!!" Okay, so they're not paying me a lot, but still, I make a living and it does pay my rent and bills.

I take what I do very seriously. Sometimes I alone can make a difference for a kid. I'll never forget Josh, an 8th grader from my first teaching job. His mom had recently passed away from cancer, and he was severely learning disabled. He struggled so much in all of his classes--except mine. I cried when his aide told me that he had said, "I only come to school for band." We both left the school at the end of the year--he went to high school, I moved to England. I hope that I helped him in some lasting way.

There are kids like Josh scattered throughout my career, in every school I've taught at, in two different states and even another country. People say these kids are blessed to have had a teacher like me, but really, I am blessed to have had the opportunity to make a difference.

Remind me of this sentimental blabbering next time I complain about how crazy they make me...because they do make me crazy. Their hormones and petty dramas make me roll my eyes, laugh, and want to scream--sometimes all at the same time. I've had nasty remarks, I've been called a bitch (a mark of honor) and found graphic and offensive grafitti scribbled about me on tables and music stands. I know I'm in good company.

And yet, here I am, the night before a new school year starts, thinking, as ever, of the possibilities. I know full well that there will be behavior problems, and kids who want nothing to do with me. And that's okay--because for every one kid who makes me want to pound my head against the wall in frustration, there are ten who are listening. Ten GREAT kids. And that makes all the difference.

I love a new school year. New school supplies, backpacks that aren't hanging on by a thread after a year of heavy use, and the school always seems so fresh, so ready. Everything has been cleaned, scrubbed and shined, and quiet buildings almost seem to wait anxiously for their young charges to come back, making messes and noise and livening things up.

So wish me luck! Today I start yet another new adventure, Wild and Absolutely True.