I Had a Hard Time Sleeping Last Night

My sleep was very restless last night.

You know what it's like -

 when you have something important to do the next day 

 and you don't want to oversleep

so you
just
keep
waking
up

all
night
long.

Then I woke up really early and was wide awake.

That's how my day began.

Only I don't have anything at all going on today.

Adam does.

Today is his first day teaching.

Eleventh grade American History.

In the Bronx.

Instead of staying in bed, 

fighting to go back to sleep for another hour,  

I got up, put on my shorts and t-shirt, grabbed my camera,

and headed to a spot in a nearby neighborhood

to watch the sun come up.

I have no doubt that Adam will be a fabulous teacher.  

He has the intelligence and the work ethic.

Most of all, he has the heart.

He knows the kind of teacher he DOESN'T want to be.

He has a vision of the kind of teacher he wants to be. 

He loves the subject he's teaching,
but more than that, he cares about the kids.
He understands that there may be so much more
going on in their lives besides his history class.

And that sometimes the best opportunities for teaching happen

outside of the classroom. 

He has a willingness to reflect on why things went the way they did - both on the good days and the bad days.   He has enough ego 

to survive the hard days and enough humility to remember 

it's not about him.  He will learn from the kids as much (if not more)

than they will learn from him.

As I write this,  Adam's first school day is coming to an end.

His dad and I can't wait to hear about how it went.

Just as we love hearing stories of Kerry's days as a nurse,

we look forward to following Adam's development as a teacher.

As I was taking the next picture,  I was thinking of the birds

as Adam's students.  Watching the teacher attentively,

trying to get an idea of the

kind of teacher he will be.

Little do they know,  he will be much more than

they could ever imagine!