A surprise meeting of families

Saturday:

I slept late today. Blame it on the horrendous headache I had when I went to bed last night. I had taken a PM headache tablet, which so thoroughly helped me to sleep that I slept right up until 11:00 a.m. this morning. 

I woke up guiltily, still with said headache, realizing that though I had planned to help with clean-up at our church's community breakfast, I had completely missed it. I could only hope that there were enough people there to do the job. I don't usually miss these fundraising breakfasts, but bright lights and loud noise would only have made it worse for me.

Sometime during the day, the headache disappeared. Just in time because I got a phone call from my student teacher. Her parents had driven in from Maryland, and they wanted to take me and my husband out to dinner while they were in town. Of course, I was delighted at the prospect of meeting her parents. There was much I could tell them, of what a good teacher she will be, and already is.

I told her we'd meet them at the Outback at 7:00, and then went into high gear (while the headache was away on leave) to find some photos I'd taken with my digital camera. I wanted to print out the pictures of their daughter teaching in my classroom. I knew she would have some stories to tell them, and the pictures would be make fine visuals.

I found quite a few, taken in various classes throughout the past two months. I knew she would love them. I had been promising to email them to her, but always it seemed to slip further down on the list of things to do. Today I did it.

We met at the restaurant, and were seated within 15 minutes (it helps to call in ahead). Her family is not so different from ours. In fact, though they live in MD, both her parents were born and raised right here in NC. We spent 2 1/2 hours talking, maybe ten minutes eating. We talked about children, teaching, winter weather, city vs country living, and their daughter, my student teacher.

My favorite moment came when J showed the pictures I'd taken to her mother. As her mother scanned each 4X6 photo, I watched her face. I knew what she was feeling as a mother. Her daughter, far from home, about to graduate, is interning in school. She must be so proud. She gazed at one photo of J in a teaching moment, and said with a hint of surprise, "Oh, she looks so grown up here!" Her husband leaned in to look.

I smiled. Just like parents. They see their baby daughter where I see a budding teacher. They let her go far from home to seek her life and I welcomed her into my classroom to practice what she had learned in school. They were going to see their daughter in a new light after this weekend visit.

I did tell them how well she was doing, and shared a few stories. They shared some stories too, of when she was a little girl and how she played at being the teacher with her stuffed animals. We laughed a lot tonight. My husband spoke with J's dad and mom, I spoke with J and her sister. There was lots of talking across the table... J's mother is going to school to be a special ed teacher too. She will graduate a year after her daughter. This is a story of a mother following in her daughter's footsteps!

So much talking, so many stories, and through it all, Ms. J enjoying having her family with her again.

It was 9:30 pm before we decided it was time to go. I could have sat there longer talking with them... they seemed like the kind of folk you'd love to have for neighbors and friends.

It's hard not to feel like a mom in this situation, but there is not much difference in being a mom and being a teacher. A mom doesn't have to create lesson plans with focus and objectives... not in a formal sense. And usually a mom doesn't have to manage a classroom of 7 or more students (up to 25). But when a teacher meets her student-teacher's family, it's very hard not to feel like a mom.  In fact, it's the only way I know how to feel when I'm not in the classroom (and sometimes when I am)!

I wasn't thinking professionally at the time, and so, I hugged them all goodbye.