Honeymoon

The Honeymoon phase is still not over and I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. My class is so loving though and I really like being with them. So much that when I went with my coop for a curriculum meeting last Friday I couldn't help but comment that I missed "my kids." My coop and the other teachers gave me one of those looks as if to say "Aww, you're so cute and naive" which, from the subsequent conversation, makes sense. Apparently, it's only the young teachers who love those kids as though they were their own. When you have your own kids then you realize how much more goes on in "your kids'" lives. One of the other fourth grade teachers went so far as to say that if a teacher doesn't have her own kids after five years then she should quit teaching until she does. Interesting advice coming from a veteran teacher.

But I see what she means. Even in my practicum last semester I felt a difference in how I saw the kids from the beginning of the semester to the end. We, after all, don't see them for very long and so it's easier to see them and their behavior with rose colored glasses. Plus, I don't think you quite understand what it's like to be in the parent's shoes until you're in that position yourself. But I think the biggest take away I got from this conversation was that it's awfully hard to be a parent. I've got a fun few years left ahead of me until I get there though so I'll keep my fingers crossed.