No matter if I have elaborately constructed lectures to deliver or just filling in as substitute teacher for a random pop-up day, I love to blast music and bliss out on the drive to school. It serves to clear my mind and to inspire my heart before entering a long school day.
I remember the first day back to school when my son was three years old. I had taken those years off from teaching to raise him and oh! the joy of getting behind the wheel, turning up the stereo and jamming on my way back, back, back to the classroom still makes me smile at the memory. What freedom! What joy! What a sense of purpose in life, really. Not that staying home for my son's first three years of life wasn't purposeful. I wouldn't do it differently in hindsight. It was just such a wonderful sense of accomplishment and happiness when we reached the stage where he was better served in a Montessori classroom and Mommy could resume her career in teaching.
Ms. Beck was back then and back again this year. I just love my role as teacher. I can't help being so damn happy, even though it irritates the hell out of some other teachers who look at me with squinted expressions of confusion. I don't have the time nor the inclination to explain to them how lonely and quiet staying home for six years has been. Again, I don't regret the time I spent away from the classroom. It was absolutely necessary for my family. But, oh! how grateful I am to return to the gymshoe, chalkdust, stinky wonderfulness of school hallways.
But, I did stop to wonder what parents and students would think as I jam to my music on the way to school. And then I reminded myself. Who cares? What crime is it for a teacher to bliss out to tunes to amp up enthusiasm for the classroom? I do have to laugh... perhaps it is unusual for a teacher to love her music so much.
As long as I keep the windows up and a smile on my face... I say, do whatever one has to do to do this weird thing called Happy Teaching!
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