When my children were in elementary school, I was a helper until they were in high school. So it wasn’t right. When we moved to Maryland they said, “Mom, can you please not get a job at our school? So I worked an after school and summer program for a year and took a couple of early education courses as a backup plan while I looked for a full time job.
I enjoyed my career in another field until my daughter graduated from college. We moved to Texas while she was in the military and then moved to California so I could be a grandmother and take care of my grandchildren for a few years. They moved and we moved.
After leaving California, I enjoyed substitute teaching for a few years and had the opportunity to teach first grade at a charter school for one school year. Then Covid hit and I went back to being a substitute teacher for a semester with 7th graders and enjoyed it.
I loved having my membership in a teacher’s store and I don’t want to give it up. Even though I changed to another job, I still have the heart of a teacher and plan to return to substitute teaching once I retire. I helped a friend start a non-profit organization and am focused on fundraising and looking forward to seeing the direction life takes. I want to see my friend’s dream of building a school come true.
I have a Sudanese baby granddaughter and I want to have something to show her when she is older than what we were able to do in her mother’s homeland. I want my friend to have something to show his boys.
When I started my new job, I still had my entire closet and bedroom full of teaching materials that I had accumulated the previous year before covid hit. I donated a lot but kept a few items just in case. Once school starts this fall, I will donate the rest so I can walk through my room and into the closet.
I still plan to collect backpacks and school supplies and keep my membership in the teacher’s store. I will continue to go there on Saturdays. I am inspired every time.
I still have the heart of a teacher. I pray that God provides the funds to make my friend’s dream come true. I pray that there will be more to the story and we will have photos to show of happy schoolchildren in a new school, filled with all the necessary supplies and smiling teachers who can focus on learning instead of surviving.
We are so hurt in America. I want my grandchildren to love school and learning. I want them to have teachers who love being with them. As long as I can, I will continue to participate in some way. Here is the future.