The Mommy in Me

Sometimes my students forget that I'm their teacher and they call me "mom" or "mommy". I think it's pretty funny when it happens, but they giggle nervously and look around them to make sure no one heard their mistake. Because they are just old enough to be embarrassed by a slip like that, that's why.

Lately, I've been feeling like more of a mom than a teacher to two of my students who are mainstreaming out for a thirty-day trial in math. For one hour every morning, I walk them around the block to a general ed. second grade classroom (our school is kind of a split campus between grades K-2 and 3-6) so they can learn math with their peers. There are definitely gaps in their knowledge of the math content, but after some testing and some reflection, I decided to try it. They started this adventure on Wednesday, and I have been so worried about it... I was having nightmares that the whole thing would be a disaster. When I walked them over for the first time, I kept having these nagging thoughts: "Are the other kids going to make fun of their hearing aids?", "Will their desk partners be helpful?", "Will they be teased when they say the wrong thing?", "Will the content be too hard?", "Will anyone play with them at recess?", "Should I just turn around and go back?". When I dropped them off at the right classroom, I almost gave them a hug before I left (they were fine; the hugs were to calm my own nerves...). I actually lingered in the background for a good twenty minutes to make sure they were settled... not unlike an over-protective mother dropping her firstborn off in Kindergarten, hovering until the teacher dropped a hint that it was time to leave!

It was helpful that the audiologist came with me and explained to these second graders how their FM systems worked and why their teacher would be wearing a microphone. To my relief, the kids were quite excited to have my students with them for an hour everyday. It turns out that the other kids are really eager to play with them, and eager to help them out in the classroom as well.

So apparently my kiddos are going to be just fine, and I can start acting like a teacher again, and less like a mom!