"Teachers just teach..."

If I had a dollar quarter for every time, in my short career, that I have heard "Oh, you're a teacher", "you just teach kids all day", "you're off all summer, must be nice", etc...then I would have my retirement already laid out. And, in defense of these uninformed nice people, I understand their point, I get the fact that the comments come from those who don't know, and who have never been in my shoes. But, guess what...I didn't choose this profession, it chose me. And, for that I am grateful. It isn't all rainbows and butterflies, it's hard work. My fellow educators and I work hard, and do things "behind the scenes" that often go unnoticed and unappreciated, but we keep doing it....because we LOVE it. We love the children, we love watching them learn, we love seeing the light bulbs go off, we love helping them solve problems, and watching them explain it to a classmate, we love seeing how proud they are of their work, we love it when they want (did you catch that, WANT) to do better the next time, we love the challenges that some kids come with, and we love to watch them overcome those challenges. I could go on, as a matter of fact, could fill up the whole page with things that we love to do, but will spare you.

We do more than "just teach". The list is enormous, and I won't go in to all of those things that we do, everyday, all day, without thinking about it, we just do it. But, this week, one of those things slapped me in the face. Remember I said, we do a lot of these things without thinking about it...

This week, a former student broke her glasses on the playground. She was devastated. They fell off, and before she could snatch them up, another student came running by and trampled on them. it wasn't his fault, and it wasn't hers. It happens. Life happens, right? She came up, crying, holding her mangled glasses, and even though I taught her two years ago, my heart broke. I knew her story, I knew that those glasses were important, and I knew that I needed to do something. But, like I said, life happens...it slipped my mind, once I got back inside, and was bombarded by 3rd grade recess drama, packing up, and end of the day routines. I never thought about it until later that night, and then vowed to remember to do something the next day. (my mom works at this little girls eye doctor...that is what I am thinking I could do) The next day comes, I run into a sweet friend, my next door teacher, and she starts to talk to me about this little girls glasses (she taught her last year). Immediately I remembered what I was going to do, so my friend and I, drop everything and call my mom, and after a conversation, find out that her glasses were under warranty! Long story short, her new glasses will be here on Monday!!

After that back and forth, and letting her mom know that her glasses are still covered under warranty, we didn't think another thing about it. We were happy it ended that way, but I honestly never thought more on it. But, she did. The next morning, I felt like a 250 pound football player had tackled me from behind, as I was walking in to school, but it was a petite little girl, running to hug me, and tell me "thank you, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Painter". She was smiling from ear to ear, and my heart melted. Her aunt thought about it, and sent us a card of thanks, telling us how much it meant, for us to have done that for her niece. And her mom thought about it, by specifically finding me after school, with a card, and a small angel...because we were her child's angels at school. We did it because we wanted to...not for the fanfare, not because it was in our job description (because it isn't), not for me, but because we knew it was the right thing. I made a phone call. That is all. But, this one single, 5 minute phone call, meant the world to this little girl and her family. And, because of that phone call, I was blessed. Nothing that transpired over the last few days, had anything to do with "just teaching". It didn't involve a book, a test, or data collection. Sure she remembers things I taught her in the 2nd grade, sure she remembers things that my friend taught her in the 3rd grade, sure she is learning things this year in the 4th grade, but I promise you, this will be remembered far longer than those things in a book and longer than anything I could teach in a year.

As teachers, we do more than "just teach" we do more than what is related to education, we are encourager's, we love, we inspire, we celebrate, we pray, we care, we encourage, we fix problems, we counsel, we cry, we worry, we slip food in book bags for those we know won't eat again until they return to school, we wipe tears, we instill values, and we love.

I'm glad that I was lucky enough to have "just taught" her.