5 years ago, I left the classroom at my principal’s urging to become a literacy coach. I had a little confidence in my literacy skills, but coach? I am one of those people who much prefers the company of kids to adults. Kids accept you. Kids are honest. Kids are fun. Adults are scary.

 

Within the first month, I was in her office crying, telling her I had made a drastic mistake. “I know teaching. I am good at teaching. I miss the kids. I don’t know what I am doing.” She talked me off the ledge that day and assured me it was the right move, that I was going to be a great literacy coach. My mentor at the time told me, “this job, being a literacy coach will fill your head, but kids, they fill your heart.” As he said it my heart ached.

 

I made a promise to myself to give it a few years, to accept that there was new learning that I needed to do and that I needed to give the job a fair chance and if after 3 years I still missed the classroom, I would go back. In the meantime, my job got cut in half and the other half was filled with small group intervention work. Kids, directly in my life again. It was not the same as running a classroom, but it was daily contact with students and my heart soared again.

 

I relished the challenge of working with Isaaq and Mohamed, newcomers from Yemen. I threw everything at them in an attempt to support their learning. Google translate, Total Physical Response, tons of images, songs, poems and so much more. Their smiles and words of understanding were a delight. I loved watching Sadeen and Elizabeth grow in confidence as they read with more strategies in they toolkit and knowledge of the letter patterns and their sight word bank bulging.

 

Then this year, back to full-time coaching. But now I had more confidence and skills to do the job right. I was humming along, supporting teachers, facilitating professional development, corralling resources and more when a teacher quit. Two actually.

 

It was an easy decision to take over the 2^nd grade class. They had a series of subs and it was quickly spiraling out of control. Each day I would drop off the lesson plans I had written with materials prepped for the sub and it looked like a hurricane had gone through the classroom. Anybody would have done the same. It was not okay to witness this unraveling of a classroom and so it was an easy decision to offer myself as the teacher until they could hire a permanent one.

 

It turns out there is a teacher shortage going on and it is not so easy to find quality teachers. Three months later, I was still in 2^nd grade when the district announced schools would shut down.  I am so grateful to have them right now and I feel better knowing they have a teacher and not a sub in this time of crisis.