What they don't tell you....

So here is what I CAN tell you;
You are at meet the teacher. You quickly get a bunch of forms together for parents to fill out for this very quick and superficial meeting. You give a spiel whilst everyone violently fills up every blank line on those forms so as to give you all the info you think you need to get to know their kids as much as possible. You take pictures of their children to prepare for the first day and  try to capture what you can to gather any sort of inkling to give you a leg up about these new little people soon to fill the spaces in your room. You partake in very regular, normal, exchanges that first day. You can only gather so much and you can only give so much. Never in that moment can you really understand anything about each other.
Because....
Our stories...
They lie between the lines...
They rest in the spaces we do not see.
Today I called every single parent in my classroom.
I called them because I am a mom. I am a teacher AND  a mom. Not everyone has that amazing and awesome luxury and priveledge. I am blessed. I know this. If I want to know what Athena or how Athena is doing ...all I have to do is walk down a hallway...but my parents, I can just imagine them. Sitting at home, waiting with bated breath to make sure their child wasn't some sort of hellion, some misbehaved distortion of the reality they envisioned. Parents wanting to know if their child was all they thought they could be.
Here is what I can tell you that no one else does...
Parents worry.
Parents want to know you
Parents want to know they can talk to you.
Parents want a connection with you.
Parents have so much they want to tell you.
Sometimes you are the only person a parent can talk to.
And sometimes....
ALL
IT
TAKES
IS
ONE
PHONE
CALL
And that very phone call. Can change you. Both. Forever.
Maybe I have always known how important it was to listen to people and FEEL their ....pain...sorrow...happiness...joy...sadness...whatever it was they were feeling...but after having gone through Rice Storytelling, after hearing my OWN story through Houston Playback Theatre....somehow the importance of that was magnified times 100. Now when people speak, I don't try to rush them, I don't try to go through the motions, I listen. With my ears, my heart and my soul. I absorb their story. Will that make a difference in my students lives? In the lives of their parents? I don't know. But no one tells  you the profound impact it will have on your life.
I'm glad I know.
Screw the generic questionnaires ....I will be personally calling each and every parent for the rest of my teaching career....It's a beautiful thing...stories waiting to be heard....and all one has to do is dial a few numbers.....