I was a middle school Reading Specialist for seven years. Part of my responsibilities was teaching a four classes that utilized the reading program, READ 180. It is a very scripted curriculum to help lower performing students with their reading and writing skills.
During the school year, students enrolled in that class, had to take four separate assessments that tracked their progress. Those assessments were administered on a computer. It was my responsibility to manually input the enrolled students into this computer program.
I needed to put in their first and last names, specific class information that they were in rolled in, and their date of birth. After doing those things, the students were enrolled in the class in the computer program and would be permitted to take the four, necessary assessments on the computer.
Once I received my class lists before students arrive for the school year, I would manually enter in their names and the specific class information. To obtain their birthday, I would give them a reading assignment with comprehension questions to complete while I inputted their birthday. I would call their name and ask their birthday as I would enter the information in and complete their individual enrollment.
Because of a job description change, this specific reading program was disbanded a year and a half prior to me leaving work. Therefore, the final year of me having to input this information into my computer was a total of four years ago. My son is 17 years old. He was born in November of 2001.
The last time I inputted students information into the computer was for a group of seventh graders. My son was in eighth grade at the time. After I was completed with entering in the entire class, To make sure I had the correct birthday, I would double check before I closed out of the program that all the information was correct. I would then begin working with the students regarding the reading assignment and their answers to the comprehension questions they were given.
The final time I double checked the birthdays, each one of those seventh graders were born in 2002. Just after I finish doublechecking their birthdays, I told them all, “ I could be all of your moms!” We all laughed and I told them that this was the first year that I could say that. I remember that being a strange moment for me because I had been teaching since my son was three.
I also laughed because I had been called, “Mom” by so many students over the years! I was called, “Mom” for the first time when I taught English and my son was three years old. It was a girl student who called me that and she was beyond embarrassed at doing so. I just smiled at her and told her that I’ve ALWAYS wanted a daughter but I didn’t want to have her when I was 12 years old! My response to her got us both laughing and her embarrassment diminished.