Hello Friends,
On May 3, 2012, the best thing ever to happen to me arrived in my arms, weighing six pounds, nine ounces. Becoming a mother to my beautiful daughter Grace Elizabeth is the most blessed gift I could ever receive. As a theatre artist, I can say ‘mom’ is the best role I have ever played. It shifts your soul, I know that is dramatic to say, but I have to be a little dramatic – I’m in theatre!
Before becoming a mommy, I was extremely anal and would let little things bother me in the classroom. Lets say period four did not go well – cut to me after school planning five different ways of teaching the next class.
Ms. H came to my classroom today and decided she is going to run a performing arts assembly, but she is the science teacher, and I am the one who is in charge of all performing arts events. Why didn’t my administration stop her?! I would stress issues that were important to me, because I am a ‘type A’ person, and I need to be in control, do everything the ‘right’ way, and work my butt off so that everything is ‘perfect’.
Now, I just don’t sweat the small stuff as much as I used to. When you become a momma, a completely new shelf of emotions opens, and no one can imagine what that feels like until it is unlocked. Trust me, I still care about what goes on in my classroom, and that my students are achieving their goals, but I’m not spending two hours researching different lesson plans for my self-contained theatre class. It’s not that I don’t want to; it’s that I don’t have the time, and I realized that sometimes overanalyzing or over thinking will make you more stressed, and that’s not good for you or your students.
The other aspect of my teaching that has heightened since becoming a mom is my creativity. Many artistic ideas have been ignited through the use of play with Grace, she truly is my fountain for creative energy! Through my play with her, it has inspired me to build drama workshops for infants, start a theatre company for young audiences, and reestablish in my pedagogy the idea of being present in the moment.
As in any big life change, becoming a mother shifts everything. I look forward to evolving as an educator and artist, as I also evolve as a mommy.
Live, Love, Learn,
I love this…a great educator and mom too!
I agree with you-being a mother really changes your perspective about how to approach teaching. If you want to live a balanced life, you have to learn to accept that your best in the classroom is good enough and be satisfied with your efforts.
I also think you learn to measure your successes by celebrating small daily achievements instead of waiting for those monumental events that sometimes take weeks, months, years to occur.