Sometimes God, or Allah, or Buddah, or whomever, the universe if you will, sends you a sign.

It has been a somewhat long school year for me in some ways. I guess any thing, though, that you are a part of for coming on 20 years does warrent examination. So hard school year? Perhaps not. Reflective school year? Absolutely.

Anyways, back to that sign.

Last week, a former student contacted me asking if I wanted to get together for coffee. With the heat, I suggested a drink instead, and that is just what we did a couple of days ago. Drinks on the deck at Pleasant Beach. It had been a long day at work, with students for a half day, and wellness activities involving sweat like you wouldn't believe the rest. Then we had meetings and worked on report cards in a convection oven like setting. Still, or especially after all that, a beer on the deck and the cares of the day drifted away. The hazy, hot and humid was merely the back drop of reconnecting, reminicing,and reflecting...those illusive but ever so important three R's. It was so good to see my former student, and realize I had meant something to her. And it was even more wonderful to see and hear about the highly successful young woman she has become. I was so proud of her and all of her accomplishments.

Sometimes I miss those good old days of teaching. I miss the days I had more time to connect with kids. It was the days before I had my own children, so, lets face it, I had more time overall, but also, things were looser. Demands were lesser. State standards hadn't even been spoken of. Even curriculums were simply white bound booklets from the state, very vague, and not very helpful, but in retrospect, sort of freeing. There was some feeling of "anything goes," there was the abliity to teach about what mattered to you, there was the time to really delve into the teachable moment. Did anything go? No. This is teaching we are talking about, done by teachers, and we are a highly responsible lot. We do what we should do. We are highly accountable individuals, for the most part. And I think, back in those days when I had less structure given to me, I, in some ways, had more structure to my teaching. I owned it. I did what I knew was right when I knew it was right. I listened to kids and metered my teaching to them.

Well, today, school ended. I finished my 19th year as a teacher. Things have changed, a lot. Some for the good, some for the bad, but one thing is sure. And I learned, or was reminded of this, when meeting up with my former student the other night. Regardless of it all, we are growing humans. There may be demands put upon us, by new evaluations, student learning objectives, and assessments that feel sometimes like they will do us in. But we need to keep in mind that it is the connections we make, as people, that probably matter the most. If we can spark a love of learning and send children out into the world with a drive to do their best, sometimes, they come back to us, and, if we take the time, we might notice that this is a sign...and we know, once and for all, that what we do is the right thing and what we do, each and every day, matters.