They made me *want* to write about them!

People have been commenting about me being an empty nester now. I get it, but I have also told almost all of them that I can never feel like an empty nester as my mind is occupied by my students most of the time. So … yes, I know I lost 2 boys in a sense; however, last month, I gained 6 of them. I am, once again, a “boy mom”!

I have 2 in grade 6 and 4 in grade 7, and they are between 10 and 13 years old. The youngest will be 11 in December and the oldest was held back a year. And I have already become very fond of them and fiercely protective as well. Since we do a lot of integration, which is spend time with students outside of our classroom, we also deal with insensitive kids who stare or snicker or pass snide remarks. Middle school has a bad rep, and it is terrible when some kids make that rep legit. Yesterday, I had to interrupt a class so I could address some of these kids and let them know that they were being very unkind and it was unnecessary.

I was in a grade 6 class, and these were 10 to 11-year-old kids. It made me sad when I realized how young and mean they were. And I was there with my youngest who involuntarily makes sounds. He can’t help it; however, the other kids could make better choices.

Today, I was in a music class with my grade 7 students. Last week was when they got to choose their instruments. We had a clarinet, a flute and 2 trumpets. None of the boys knew how to play them, and I had no clue. I felt utterly helpless and useless. And half of them wanted to leave right away. 2 of them tried earnestly. I did my best to support all of them. Today, the same half did not want to go back. I gave them no choice. If I wasn’t a teacher, I would not have wanted to go back as well.

I am home right now and tired from the day, and I wanted to spend whatever little energy I had on writing about the new kiddos in my life.

In music class, I somehow got the teacher to come over and help us. After literally a couple of minutes, he gave them an option to try drums. All 4 boys instantly dropped their instruments and rushed towards the drums on the other end of the classroom. They were delighted to finally not struggle. And I sighed in relief.

I am home right now, and although it feels a little empty, I am filled with joy.