Teachers Are People, Too...

Greetings Apples,

Tomorrow marks my four year anniversary of being cancer free.

When I was first diagnosed, I was in the middle of student teaching and had to withdraw from school in order to undergo surgery and a few months of recovery. After sitting out for a semester, I was able to return to the credential program, and finish one semester behind what I had initially anticipated. In a beautiful twist of fate, that one semester delay enabled me to be placed as a student teacher at a school in the district where I was desperate to get a job. I was very fortunate, especially with the current lack of jobs in education, to be hired on immediately at that same school, and I have been working there ever since. (Talk about a silver lining!)

A dear friend of mine, who is also a teacher and a cancer survivor, once told me that a parent put in a request not to have her child placed in that class in case the teacher got cancer again and had to go on leave. She didn't want her child to have a long-term sub.

I was shocked.

Our jobs as teachers are important, and the work we do in the classroom each day is crucial to the success of our students, but teachers are people, too. We have families and obligations and hobbies like you do. We get married like you do. We have babies like you do. We get sick like you do, too.

Our job is to teach your child, but we are also real people with real lives, just like you.

After hearing my friend's story, I was very careful never to make mention of my cancer history at school. I never wanted it to be something that overshadowed my work or reputation as a teacher.

As the years have passed, I've become less tight-lipped about that time in my life. I have realized that what I went through has not only made me a better person, but a better teacher, too. I believe I am more compassionate and understanding than I was before. I am able to more easily sympathize if a child has a major life event causing them stress at home. I believe I am more patient, and I am able to not take things (including myself!) so seriously.

What I have been through at a relatively early age in life has helped shape the teacher I am today, and that's something worth sharing and celebrating.

Happy Anniversary to me!
Miss H.

"Tummy Time" with my nephew in the hospital.