I was reminded of my first year of teaching by an encounter with a neighbor. She lives two doors away from my parents' house and has a daughter. I taught her daughter one year and caught her plagerizing. Actually, what happened was her mom, thinking she was being helpful, edited a first draft to perfection. The girl turned it in without seeing all the changes her mom had made and I called her on it. The mother had taken French of course and was showing off for me disguised as helping her daughter. The mother is an English teacher at a different private catholic school. Why her daughter doesn't go there instead of where I taught makes me think she enjoys being away from her mother, but that's only a guess. So the mother thought I was too harsh on her daughter, of course, but attributed her punishment to the fact that I was a first-year teacher. Boy, did that bug me! What I couldn't believe is that another teacher thought it was okay to do her child's homework without consequence! I hope I'm not tempted to do the same!

Remembering this story and other adventures from my first-year teaching reminded me about what a great year personally I had despite having a tough professional year. That was the same year I met and wed Brian. Yes, we moved quickly into marriage. It was the year of 9-11 and we thought, life's too short, why put off our wedding. Fortunately for us it has worked out. We're happy, we have a baby, we're comfortable. Life is good. I'm glad it's 2004 and not 2001!
  ¶ 11:37 AM