Why I Love My Kids

I can’t believe how much I miss my beautiful children today. In honor of them and their wonderful passions I write this blog post to share with you what is so great and remarkable about them.  I can’t write about each one today because I also have to lesson plan but I hope the few you are able to read about give you a glimpse into my classroom.

If there is one thing I have been reminded of in my short time as a teacher it is that we are each truly fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator. I praise Him for the privilege that it is to teach such incredibly beautiful people.

J.H.—Can talk my ear off like a grown man. He has so much to say and every time I am with him one-on-one after school I am so overjoyed to be spending time with him. He is considerate beyond belief and will always ask me if I need help carrying my crate of papers. His smile brings me joy every time I see it.

M.J.—Is my little helper. Every day after school she helps me sweep my floor, sharpen my pencils and wipe down my desks with Lysol wipes. She is such a busy bee. She is always so eager during class to answer any question and will jump out of her desk just so that she can get my attention. I am blessed to have her in my life and she is one of the reasons I am able to leave school at a reasonable hour once my kids are dismissed.

B.W.—Is my pouter. I forgot how much seven year olds pouted until I started teaching. Nevertheless, he lets me hold his hand when he’s misbehaving in line and I pull him out to walk right next to me. One day he even asked me if he could hold my hand before I had to pull him out. I have found the way to get him to stop his pouting: whispering in his ear how special and wonderful I think he is and then asking him to do his work. Flattery always works my friends, and it also helps that I am not lying.

K.P.—My sweet lil cuddle bug. She doesn’t like to play during recess and hangs out with me on the other side of the lawn while the other kids run wild. She gives the best hugs I have ever been given in my whole entire life. At least once a week while she’s hugging me she’ll look up at me and say with such sincerity, “You are the best teacher in the world.” Her laugh brings me joy.

A.G.—Is one of my most thoughtful students. I couldn’t get a word out of her the first few weeks but as time has passed she’s warmed up to me and has never given me a wrong answer; she’s so incredibly bright. I once thought to myself during a particularly hard day for behavior as I surveyed the room and saw her following my directions, “If only I had a room full of A.H.'s.”

T.T.—The spitfire of the class. She is smart, witty, thoughtful and beautiful. One day I remember thinking to myself, “This girl is way cooler than I will ever be.” She wrote me the sweetest apology letter one day after I disciplined her for misbehaving and I always appreciate how after I find myself having to apologize to the class for my shortness of temper she will come up to me and say, “Ms. Maxey, I accept your apology.” Words can’t describe how much that means to me.

O.M.—Wants to be president and is our resident class genius. He makes me laugh so hard and for a tiny person makes SO much noise. He is obsessed with WWE, Barack Obama and his nickname “Bulldog.” Thanks to him I have come to appreciate all the three things that he loves. Oh, and his smile is literally the best, that and his flexible glasses that he hands me before recess everyday. And did I mention he is an extremely talented dancer?

K.B.—Is my idea generator! One of my most humbling moments as a teacher came during my first few weeks when I was teaching a lesson on place value and K.B. raised her hand and said, “Ms. Maxey this is how I do it” as she showed me her paper. I immediately asked her to teach me and then come up to the board and show the class. She always has ideas for things to do in class and reminds me of all the things I should be doing but often forget to do such as pick the “secret walker” before we line up to leave the room.

A.N.—Has more personality than I can handle at times, but I love it, each and every day when she lets loose. Also, I should mention that she is almost as tall as me and only eight years old. She has shown me so many dance moves and makes me laugh each day with her goofiness. She loves to joke around with me and laughs at my jokes, which of course I appreciate because deep down inside I know they’re not funny to most people. Cool fact about my baby girl: She WWE wrestles with the boys during recess and beats them, the embodiment of girl power. 

In 2006...

In 2006 I read a book that changed my life titled And Still We Rise written by Miles Corwin, a journalist for the LA Times. It was for my ninth grade English class and my teacher recommended it to me as part of a year-long project. The book follows the struggles of twelve gifted inner city students growing up in South Central LA and the countless structural obstacles that they had to overcome in order to simply pass an AP English exam as well as gain college acceptance. 

Little did I know as I ordered the title I had been recommended over Amazon that this book would in many ways change me. Granted, I was fourteen and I wouldn't say that it changed me as much as it molded my passions. To this book I can attribute several things: my passion for slam poetry, my passion and interest in hip-hop and lastly my passion and interest in education reform. As a suburbanite fourteen year old this book awakened something in me that I had never really known before, it stirred my deep desire for change and I felt as if my eyes had been pried open. I had grown up overseas and while I witnessed disparity in the countries I had lived, there was something about inequality in America that I didn't understand. 

To me inequality was the sight of street kids begging for money on the side of my school bus, a lady selling fruit snacks at the stop light, and seeing prostitutes on the side of the road on a very late night ride home when I was in fourth grade. This was inequality and where I had grown up it was evident, it was there. I didn't have to work hard to find it. But in this country it's different. Depending on who you are you can shut out the rest of the world and just know what you know and never leave. There was something about Miles Corwin's book that shattered this in me and actually caused me to be repulsed by the thought of staying in what had become my familiar and comfortable existence. I wanted to leave and see more, learn more, grow more, and be more than just stagnant. 

Fast forward to now:

A few days ago at lunch my kids were talking about their birthdays trying to figure out who was older. "I am older than everybody up in here!" one boldly proclaimed. "Nuh-uh, I flunked so I'm older,” another said. "When were you born?" a third student interjected. A fourth chimed in, "I was born in 2006!"

All of a sudden I felt old to think that I could vividly remember 2006 as if it was yesterday. I thought back to 2006: I was in high school, I played field hockey, I sang in my school choir, I listened to Yung Juc and I would come late to school some days so I would have to walk and climb the back fence long after they had locked it. 

And then I also remembered, in 2006 I read a book that made me want to be here in this cafeteria in the first place. I read a book that made me want to learn, grow and be challenged and more deeply know and understand others. In 2006 my dreams were born and now they are sitting right in front of me busily chowing away at their school cafeteria lunches and noisily chatting about who is older. Because of them I can say that I did leave and see more, learn more and am more than just stagnant. They are my greatest lessons and have opened my eyes to new joys and sorrows beyond what I ever imagined.

Being Taken Care Of

I didn't become a teacher to be taken care of, but given my most recent life lessons, apparently that's the main reason I am here. But really.

Today after a particularly exhausting and humbling (in so many ways) day I rested my bones on our new set of beanbag chairs (THANK YOU TANYA, JOEL ZACH AND DADDY) and closed my eyes for about ten minutes. I wasn't asleep, but I so badly wished that I was. The day had been full of challenges, I can't even begin to articulate how defeated I felt. However, as I began to open my eyes and regain my composure I noticed that the students who were still in the room were furiously cleaning the classroom, which is normally my job after school.

Makea had swept the floors and wiped down the desks with Lysol wipes, Jose (who I normally have to beg to sharpen pencils) had not only already sharpened the pencils but he had also straightened up all of the desks and collected all of the extra work left over on the tables.

I don't know what really possessed these two seven year olds to take care of me in this way, but in this moment I felt loved by them and by my Maker. Praise Him for the moments that remind me it is not about me.