Today’s Prompt: WOMAN
There is a woman I don’t know out there who is getting her classroom ready for the 3rd graders she will start teaching Monday.
Because the school system doesn’t give teachers their classroom funding (such as it is) until school starts … and because it is her first year teaching, a mutual friend asked several of us to contribute books.
One of the books I am contributing is Glowstone Peak. The authors (Karin Hurt, David Dye and Sebastian Hurt) sent me this copy for review purposes. Once I am done reviewing it (soon!), I am going to pass it along to this woman for her classroom.
I read a brief excerpt in the video below:
I may not know this woman, but I know who the woman I have been for all the years my kids were in school (my son graduated in 2017, so I had a student in Leon County Schools from the time Tenley started kindergarten (2001) until Wayne Kevin graduated in 2017).
I may not know *this* woman starting to teach 3rd grade, but I know what it’s like being a woman who hopes her child is being encouraged, enriched, disciplined when needed, and allowed to enjoy a safe and fulfilling childhood.
Because I work at home in the early hours, I watch the bus go right past our yard, right past the spot where it used to pick my children up. Recently, I watched it make practice runs in advance of the beginning of the school year. I may not have literally teared up, but a little bit of my heart tugged every single time and it probably always will.
All those years, praying and hoping school would be a happy page in the books of my children’s lives.
That is why this woman (me) is giving that woman (the new teacher) books.
She is helping lots of minds, full of potential, write their own stories. I hope Glowstone Peak and the other books will encourage her as she starts her first year as a teacher of other women’s (and men’s) children.
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
Thank you so much for helping to spread the word of courage, influence and hope for our growing leaders!
My pleasure, Karin!
I love that you are sharing books with this teacher’s classroom. AND I love that you are reminding us how vital teachers are to our kids. Thank you so much for writing this post.
I can’t imagine anything more important than a teacher (or books … okay we’ll call it a tie!).
What a cool idea! I respect and am so thankful for teachers. My sister teaches 2nd grade. Im in the 31 spot this week.
Aw I hope your sister has a great year!
As a veteran teacher of 32 years your words touched me deeply! Teaching can feel so isolating and overwhelming especially in the beginning! What a blessing you are to this new teacher and what a blessing your post is to me! Thank you Paula, Cindy Wilkins
I am glad it resonated with you, Cindy. Thank you for all you do.
Wow! Powerful post, Paula!!
Thanks so much, Brenda!
When I was a third-grader, I was reading John Toland’s “Battle: The Story Of The Bulge”, perhaps the best narrative of the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944.
My teacher raised her eyebrows, but did not criticize, and I thank God for that, because the book was excellent preparation for a life at war.
This does not surprise me, Andrew!!!! Not to overgeneralize, but sometimes the reading situation in elementary here in the US these days is so finely measured — Accelerated Reader programs requiring kids to stay within certain parameters (that one’s too hard for your level, etc.) — that it borders on squashing the joy of reading.