Dropped the ball

A little over three years ago, I quit teaching in the face-to-face world. I was hugely pregnant with my second child, and I could barely walk. My husband and friends urged me to go ahead and take the remainder of the school year for my maternity leave. Spring Break was late that year, so the timing was pretty decent.

I worked my tail off to get the assignments ready for my students. I had Advanced Placement English Composition and Newspaper. My substitute was one of my own favorite teachers from my high school years, so I knew the kids would be in good hands. I also knew I just had to get off my feet and relax before the Animal was born.

From the very comfortable, large chair in my living room, I tried to continue teaching my AP kids. I created videos and graded papers. I answered emails and hoped to give them a little more help before their very difficult AP test.

The Newspaper class kept rolling right along with our weekly broadcast. I had left this in the hands of my very capable editor (who, by the way, is now in film school). They completed assignments electronically, and I did my best to give them journalistic experience the best way I knew how.

I had a little over a month to prepare for my baby’s arrival. But to this day, I still feel like I let those students down — that I dropped the ball on their education.

To this day — some three years later — I still regret having to leave my classroom babies. I know they are fine and off in college or the military and being beyond successful. I still talk to a few of them and see them in person from time to time. And I know that I made a great decision to be able to teach from home and take care of my biological babies. But every now and again, I worry that I really did let go too soon, and perhaps I wasn’t the best teacher that year. In fact, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t.

Have you ever “dropped the ball” on something and realized even years later that you still feel guilty?

 

 

Tags: axisofineptitude, droppedball, education, playinmay