I'm a Mirror

I'm a mirror. I know it. I've always known it. The louder I am, the louder the kids are. When I'm frazzled and unorganized, the kids are frazzled and unorganized. As we inch ever so slowly toward June and the lazy days of summer, I find my self saying, "Seriously?" and "Really, guys?" way more often than I like.  And guess what I hear coming out of the mouths of my students more often than I'd like...

I read a story recently about a man who put a voice recorder in his autistic son's shirt pocket, because he was concerned about the treatment he was receiving at school. His son, being nonverbal, couldn't communicate with him, so this father thought he was doing what was necessary to protect his son. While I don't necessarily agree with the father's actions, it turns out that what was on that recording device at the end of the day was less than professional, although not abusive.

I've been thinking a lot about that and while I don't think anyone would actually tape me in class, I've been asking myself how I would sound if, in fact, someone was. My goal is to go home at the end of the day knowing that I would have nothing to be ashamed of if that were to happen to me. Most of the time I'd be pretty darn happy to share what goes on in my room with the rest of the world, so having that goal in the back of my mind really pulls me through those rough moments. You know, those moments when you've given the same directions 5 times and half of the class still doesn't know what to do. When you remind them 15 times that we're going to lunch and someone still forgets their lunchbox in the room. When a kid is playing airplane with the center materials instead of actually doing the center activity. When you've asked and asked for them to check to be sure no one has two copies of something because you're one short - and then they finally find it AFTER you've had to stop your lesson to fumble with the copier to make one more?? You know those moments. We all do.

Now, it's not always easy and I'm certainly not perfect. But I am a mirror and I know that my actions, words and behaviors are reflected back at me by 18 innocent children every day. Luckily, the good stuff bounces back just as easily as the not-so-good stuff. Maybe even more so.