Teachers are people, too

I went to a Linton-Stockton School Board meeting this week, and the room was full of teachers from almost every stage of my life, including my kindergarten teacher, fifth grade history teacher, eighth grade math teacher, eighth grade social studies teacher and a few more.

It had been several years since I had seen many of them (I graduated from LSHS in 2007), but the interesting part of the evening was to be able to see my former educators as real people.

As students, my class did a lot of things that annoyed the teachers, and Monday night I saw them breaking some of their own rules.

It took everything I had not to laugh.

The teachers were slowly filing into the media center, waiting for the Board of Trustees so they could give the board updates on the directions their classrooms are taking.

"But I don't want to sit in the front," I heard one my old teachers say.

I immediately reflected back to my days in junior high, where students would file into the seats farthest from the teacher. They would get so aggravated, and tell everyone to shift towards the front.

Some of the teachers were saving seats, while others were plotting their escape from the media center after they delivered their presentation.

"I don't want to be on camera," someone told me as I set up my live streaming equipment, and some joked about bribing me not to catch them on camera.

I reassured the teacher my camera would be pointed toward the board members because the tripod would not allow me to turn the camera easily.

"Do we have to stand up there (at the front) and give our presentations?" another asked.

I laughed quietly because I am sure this teacher -- at some point -- made me stand in front of my peers to talk about a project or read something aloud.

Teachers were always persistent about standing in front of the classroom and speaking loudly.

I could see nerves that were never present in the classroom, as I had spent about 36 weeks with several of these men and women when I was growing up.

I definitely found humor in seeing these professionals I looked up to as a child in a rare form.

When we were kids, we saw our teachers as this permanent fixture in the classroom. When we saw them at the store we would be like, "Wow, they have lives, too?"

I still look up to these people as the educators who slowly molded who I am today, but it was still fun to see them in their true light.

Sabrina is a staff writer for the Greene County Daily World. She can be reached by email at swestfall@gcdailyworld.com or by telephone at 847-4487.