April 18 - Teaching is in all my cells

Today we celebrated my daughter Jasmine's 7th birthday with a party at the bowling alley. Twenty-five invitations were passed out to all her classmates because the school's policy is if you invite one, you have to invite them all. Otherwise, you have to mail them individually.

These days it is hard to fully prepare for a party because it has become the trend to not RSVP to parties. When did it become acceptable to just show up to a party without notifying the host that you will be attending? Therefore, I had no idea if 5 or 25 of her classmates would show up. It is so hard to decide how many plates, cups, utensils and goodie bags to bring.

Eleven loud, energetic, but FUN 6 and 7 year olds had a fantastic time bowling, eating cake, opening presents and running around playing tag. Anyone who is a parent knows that tending to a bunch of children at a party is an exhausting task! After the guests leave, you muster up your remaining energy to clean and pack up the car.

As I was cleaning up, a woman who was bowling several lanes down approached me. She asked if I was a teacher. Surprised, I said yes and asked her how she knew. She said that she bowls at the alley every weekend and notices that most parents just let all the children run wild. She said that wasn't the case with the children in our party. She noticed that I had all the students line up when giving directions, had them sitting in the seats waiting for their turn to bowl and used hand signals when I needed to get their attention. She even said she saw how I clapped and high fived each child as they took their turn bowling. Somehow she knew that I just had to be a teacher.

At first I thought, was this woman starting at me the entire two hours that she noticed all that? Then I thought, wow, I made a positive impression on her because of the fact that I am a TEACHER!

Teaching does not end when I walk out of the school doors. Teaching is in every fiber of my being. It definitely came in handy today or these kids would have ran all over me! I just love being a teacher!!!