Back to School...Sort Of

In two weeks when the big yellow school buses are zipping down the streets to transport kids of all ages to school, I will be joining them. That is, in a sense I will be joining them. I have gone back to teaching part time and this go around I will be working with college aged students. My part time profession as a adjunct with the University of Houston-Clear Lake, is a new and exciting venture for me. As a University Teacher Supervisor, it will be my task to instruct students within a professional setting and monitor their internship as teachers.

If someone would have told me when I was getting my master's degree that one day it would help get me a job in a university, I would have laughed. When I got my MA, as much as it was for furthering my education, it was for adding to my paycheck. It never occurred to me that some day I would actually use my degree to work with college level students. As a retired teacher with an elementary teaching background, this job will be a different challenge.

Next week I will drive to the university to meet my students. They will be given a syllabus with assignments meant to broaden their outlook of what it is to be an educator. Some of them are going to be nervous about standing in front of a classroom full of children ready to point out any mistake they make. Those nerves will be strained more as they are also observed by their mentor teacher and me, their University Supervisor. It will be my job to encourage, teach, mentor and guide them through the semester.

When I as teaching full time in elementary school, most of the initial excitement about school starting back was seeing all my colleagues and friends again. As much as I looked forward to meeting my students, it was a ton of work to prepare for their first day. This year, I'm excited to have more freedom than I did as a classroom teacher and to be able to work with older students. Instead of putting up brightly colored bulletin boards, cutting out shapes for name tags or filling supply boxes with crayons, pencils and scissors; I will be setting up computer files for each of my 9 students, reading their academic textbooks, and preparing myself to be an effective instructor.

My parents would be surprised that I have signed on with a university. Heck! I'm surprised that I signed on with a university. However, I believe my parents would be proud that I've come this far in my career. It is my hope and desire to always be searching for something else to do with my time and abilities for as long as God will allow. It is humbling for me to think about where I started as a scared just-turned 6 year old student walking into a school building for the very first time. I didn't even know all the letters of the alphabet and my 5 year old grandson can read words going into kindergarten. Now I can be the confident 56 year old instructor walking into a school for higher education. Humbling indeed that God didn't give up on me when I bogged down in self-pity or self-destruction. That He kept whispering in my ear to get up and move on has reminded me often that I am not alone in this world.

This little adjunct job with the university may not seem like a big deal to a full time PhD on the faculty of a major university. But, to a little East Texas nobody of a girl who ranked in the lower middle of her 400+ high school graduating class, who barely scraped up an acceptable GPA to earn her bachelor's degree and had to begin her post graduate work on probation...this is HUGE. I gratefully and with much humility, thank the Lord for an opportunity to give back some of what I learned as an educator over the course of 30 years to young interns. That just boggles my mind.

However, I would be remiss if I closed this post without giving notice to what a wonderful, supportive husband of 33 years I have. He always encourages me and never once has he told me I couldn't success in whatever I set my sights toward. Even though we don't always agree and sometimes he makes me so mad I want to scream, he is my reality check and solid wisdom. Where the rubber meets the road, where it really counts, I know that Kim is there for me.

"Back to School" novels with many new chapters are starting to be written. Let our stories continue.