I have scores of moms, and dads for that matter. Mostly I know my moms. Why?, because they are the hands-on caregivers of my many students. I don’t intend to take anything away from the incredible dads along the way, but it is generally the moms that I am in consistent communication. All of my parents are amazing! Reason being is that they are parents, and they have children who they care for and protect.

As an educator, it is easy for me to delineate those parents who are true parents, and those who ‘phone it in’. I don’t want to make is sound like those who phone it in are bad parents, because they are not. But as an educator, it is clearly apparent who’s children are more on the fore-front than others. As an educator, I am saddened when I see the difference. And when I do, I try to convey to my students that they are equally as important as everyone else around them.

Some teachers find parent communication as burdensome, with the desire to have less direct communication. I am not super, I am not an exceptional anomaly, but I am a teacher who would rather hear from my parents than not. My parents… no, not my biological parents but my students’ parents. Parents of my students, of which I have had many. I have been an educator for nearly 18 years, and so therefore I have many ‘parents’.

I remember when I first started teaching I told my grade level colleague that I remember all of my past students names. She told me that after many years, one cannot remember everyone’s names and many of them become a blur. Suzanne was right, I remember the names of very few of my past students. Not that I have intentionally forgotten any as I have taught so many at this point that it has become impossible to remember them all by name.

There are few, yes… few, students who I will remember for as long as my physiological brain will allow. Those who have made an impact on me as a person. Those who have made impact on me as a human being, part of this overall humanity in which we live. Those few students make an impact on my life, immediately. How?, I have no idea, and I don’t even need to know the real reason why. I just know that they have, and I all the more reason I want to continue my support and devotion to those kids.

I met one of my mom’s today, for the first time in person. COVID has taken so much away from us all, but has made personal connections all the more real. My mom, who I knew from the get-go was an incredible mom, was everything in-person as I had imagined from all our past communication. Yes, her kids were awesome. No her kids were not 100% academically on par. But YES, her kids were 100% capable of 100% achievement, and I knew it from the beginning. I believed in those kids, and they are awesome.

I have always said, ‘Believe That You Can, and You Will.’ All it takes is the belief. There is no doubt. Doubt is self-imposed which makes no sense whatsoever. IF there is a possibility, then there is and no one can take that away, period.

I met one of my mom’s today, in person that is, and the meeting was without disappointment. She is a great mom, with two great kids, who will make incredible achievements in this world one day…when it is their time.