Balance – Love

As I sit to write this post The Beatles song “All You Need Is Love” is resonating through my head…

All you need is love, All you need is love, All you need is love, love, Love is all you need.

The last few weeks I have been doing a great deal of reflecting on my career. I am completing a momentous milestone…25 years of teaching, all in special education! I can honestly say I LOVE what I do.

This is my year of BALANCE and maintaining Love is a part of my balance. As I wrote about in a previous post I truly identify myself as a special education teacher and the love I get from what I do has kept me going all these years. I got my first contract job for the 1994-95 school year as an Early Childhood Special Education teacher for the Council Bluffs Community School District. As a first year teacher, I was full of hope and scared beyond belief; oh but how far I have come. I’m still full of hope, at times scared (yet in a different way) and confident. I now know that I do make a difference in the lives of my children and their families and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to work with and support so many families.

In the past 25 years I have assessed, written reports/IEP’s, progress monitored and loved so many littles. For me, the biggest love as a special education teacher is I get to grow up with my littles. While classroom teachers have their kids for a year or two, I can have mine for their entire elementary career. The experiences I have had just increases my love for my littles.  Here is just a smattering of experiences over the last 25 years…

  • being pants by a four-year-old
  • having a four-year-old strip to her diaper and run through the building
  • taking a little with CP down a slide on my lap and listening to his giggle
  • walking on my knees with a little who is blind to encourage him to use his cane and walk independently
  • littles cheering when told you are moving grade levels with them so you can continue being their teacher
  • giggling when my tongue gets tied and I say sh*ts instead of sheets (thank heavens for 6th graders)
  • doing a lesson on hygiene w/glitter & minutes later the little goes home due to strep test coming back positive
  • having a fashionista plan out my wardrobe at least once a week (loved not having to think about what to wear)
  • a little saying “you’re the best teacher” then the next breathe “you’re fired”
  • helping a little look for her first lost tooth on the playground full of pea gravel

For me, teaching is about relationships. Over the last 25 years, I have worked with families to establish services to support their child; yet, the biggest reward is when we get to discontinue services. The joy on a littles face and the peace on their families face when they have accomplished this task is one of the best feelings. I have now been in a district long enough to have had the pleasure over the last few years of having families and littles (who aren’t so little anymore) contact me letting me know they are off their IEP, giving me thanks for all the work we did in elementary, telling me they are making it and how thankful they are and inviting me to attend their high school graduation.

Here’s to the last 25 years and the love so many littles have brought me and here’s to what lies ahead. I know there is no perfect BALANCE to life, yet I Believe through my Attitude, Love from others, being able to Allow New growth, and Connect with positive Energy I will continue to cherish all I gain from my littles and their families.

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