Day 20: A letter to someone that changed your life

Dear Jesus (the Mexican kid I taught in my first year of teaching, not Christ, who would also be good, but a little personal for this public forum),

I was so nervous when I walked into the first grade classroom on my first day of teaching.  I truly had no idea what I was doing.  The kindergarten teachers told me to watch out for because you had a habit of stealing stuff from the classroom.  So naturally, I had my eye on you from the very first day.  And you sure turned out to be a handful!  It turns out that, yes, you did steal things, like the pieces of our math games.  And when it came to reading, I was shocked to find out you only knew about 1/3 of the letters in the alphabet.  You could write your name and that was about the extent of your writing abilities.  Your English was pretty broken, plus all you wanted to do at school was play around.  Overall, you were a totally sweet kid, but you still caused me tons of grief that year! 

I learned a ton through teaching you and the other students in that first class.  I learned that disciplining was not my strong area.  I learned a lot about teaching students who don’t speak English as their first language and I learned a lot about Hispanic culture from meeting with you and your parents (with Rob or someone else translating, of course!).  I learned how much work it is to be a teacher.  I truly learned to teach someone how to read and write from the very beginning stages.  And I learned that I don’t like teaching school in most situations. 

I taught school for 4 more years after that first year, and every year I told myself I would not do it again.  But with a teaching degree, that was the best money I could make.  I learned so much over my 5 years of teaching, and I actually think I was a pretty decent teacher by the end of that time.  I finally figured out how to effectively discipline the students, I learned how to teach various ages, skill levels, personality types, and socio-economic statuses.  I learned a ton about managing a classroom full of 25+ kids.  Now that I am not working anymore, I do sometimes miss some of the aspects of teaching (I will never miss the disciplining or the parent teacher conferences or the grading or the long hours of extra stuff that gets dumped on teachers).  I know that all I have learned will be incredibly valuable to my family and that my skills will not be wasted.  While I would like to go back to work at some point, I do not want to go back to classroom teaching.  All of my experiences have pushed me to be ready to try new things.  Jesus, you were a big part of all of this and I will always remember you.  I will also always remember the T-shirt you brought me back as a gift when you went to California.  It is big on me, but Rob still wears it sometimes.  I always think of you when I see him wear it.  Thank you for all you taught me in that short little year and good luck in your future!

Love,

Mrs. Egbert  

 

May 4, 2004

This picture was taken at the Salt Lake Zoo.  Rob was chaperoning on our field trip.  Jesus is the kid in the middle.