October

October is a very important month in my life.

For starters, it's the month I was born.  It's a month I was not due to be born in...my due date was the end of September.  But, nevertheless, mid-October was when I made my entrance into the world. The fact I was born in October meant some difficulties when I was ready for school - thanks to the determination of my mother I skipped kindergarten because I knew how to read.  I was always one of the youngest students in my class.

October was the month I moved to Boise from the San Francisco Bay Area.  I moved to change my life because I was unhappy with the path I was on. (Whether I could have changed the path but stayed near SF is debatable with hindsight.) I moved without a job, without knowing a single person in the area. It was a leap, a crazy decision that worked out in a way I never imagined. Ten years later, I'm in a profession that I love, paying a mortgage for a house that I adore, with close friends whom I am thankful for every day.

October is also the month that I experienced one of the greatest challenges in my career as a teacher.  This weekend is the approximate anniversary of that, and it made me start to think about how this month, October, is a pivotal month in my life.

The first full week of October is a special week in Idaho.  School teachers get two professional development days, Thursday and Friday, and students get a four day weekend. But my district doesn't usually pay teachers for the State In-service Days, so we get a long weekend too. Four years ago, during the State In-service Days, I was six weeks into being a Title I teacher at my school after a rough first year teaching third grade.  Then Sunday afternoon, around 2:30, I got a call from my principal. Mrs. X, one of the new third grade teachers, had faxed her letter of resignation from out of state.  She was already gone and there would be no teacher for that class on Monday.

"You're the only one I can ask."  I remember him saying.

"I'm on my way to the school to see how she left the classroom." I remember him saying.

"We just need to get through tomorrow as best we can." I remember him saying.

I remembered, from being in her room, that she had a card chart - something teachers use, students flip their cards when they've made a bad choice, it keeps track of how much recess they lose - and I thought, if I just had that, then I would be able to get through Monday. I told him to call me if the card chart wasn't there and I would prepare, with trepidation, for my return to third grade.

Recently, when moving my things to my new classroom, I found the paper on which I'd written my opening speech to my new students.  It features words of introduction, of reassurance that their teacher didn't leave because of them and that routines would stay the same.

The first day was crazy.  The students had had a substitute for a couple days, and I had no idea how their desks or room was set up.  But, the card chart was there...in fact everything was there.  Bulletin boards with decorations and borders that didn't belong to me, books in the classroom library that I didn't buy, all the mundane things in the classroom left there, left behind.

The students and I worked together - the break traumatic enough for them that they never mentioned her, never compared me to her, until late in the Spring. We worked together. The first week was hard, but my principal told me I was doing great, and slowly, calmly, I perservered.

My former principal and I always think of this experience when it's the in-service weekend (he's told me so himself).  It was a once in a lifetime experience.  And, reflecting on it, one of the things I did was to remember I needed to take things one day at a time.  That I didn't have all the answers, or all the control. (I had to do parent teacher conferences three weeks later with only MY grades and never having met the parents before- talk about jitters!) 

There are lessons to be learned in October.  Lessons about arrivals and taking chances. Lessons about being patient and kind. Lessons of October, which need to continue throughout the year.