Don't throw stones, your house might be glass.

What a day! I took 18 Preschool students to a story telling event that didn't even keep me engaged (I think they liked it more than I did though). I came back and had this great plan for a surprise party for my student intern only to have it blow up in my face as I had a student completely loose control. Principle was at a meeting, Special Ed coordinator at meeting, former Behavior Specialist at the same meeting...I stood with my intern in the behavior specialist room trying to keep this child from hurting themselves or either one of us as I watched the clock tick as my plans for the great surprise party began to unravel. It didn't turn out the way I had planned, but we made it through. As I am driving to pick the kids up I am remembering that 2 of my kids had student interns too and we hadn't done anything for them...starting to feel bad. Then as we are traveling home, my daughter informs me she didn't have anything but popcorn for lunch because we didn't turn in the hot lunch form for April and she and her dad had forgotten to fix a lunch this morning....feeling even worse at this point. I try so hard to juggle everything but fail so often. As I contemplated this on my way home, I realized as a teacher it is so easy for me to make judgements about parents. I see everything they are not doing for their child in my classroom. I see the newsletters that go unread, the homework that doesn't get done, the volunteer time that they committed to going undone, and then I thought...that's me! I know I do my best to meet all the deadlines, due dates, requirements and remember all the parties, field trips and birthday parties in between dance and baseball, church and my job but the truth is most days I forget something. How many times have my kids teachers thought "And she's a teacher!" I almost wanted to pull off the road and cry as I realized how many times I have made judgements about people and never walked a day in their shoes. How many times have I made a judgement about someone forgetting to turn in permission slips, or come in and volunteer and yet I have no idea what the rest of their life looks like....we all live in glass houses, I'm going to try to remember not to throw stones anymore.