“Miss, I saw you yesterday at City Centre!” my student shyly said to me this morning.
After yesterday’s Labor Day national holiday, we came back to school and I was greeted by two children telling me something very similar about our separate chance meetings at the mall yesterday.
“Yes, I did see you yesterday in the food court! It was so nice to see you and your family at the mall. Did you have fun?” I responded.
It was fun to see my students. I was able to introduce my husband to their parents and see their sweet enthusiasm for seeing their teacher in an unusual place.
It reminded me of when I was in sixth grade and I saw my teacher at church one Sunday. It was so odd. Even though I spent hours a day, five days a week with the man, I remember this chance meeting like it was yesterday. I can picture him coming out of the washroom, and walking down the sunny corridor, smiling when he caught my eye.
We spoke very briefly, but it was so awkward for me. Even as a tween, I still had the idea that teachers belong at school. My compartmentalized life was getting shifted, like the young narrator in Judy Finchler’s Miss Malarkey Doesn’t Live in Room 10.
How about you? Do you have memories of seeing your teachers out of context? Or students seeing you?
This is a post for the Tuesday Slice of Life and from tell a story prompt for #edublogsclub.
Your story prompted a memory of seeing a past teacher at the races. I had gone back to my home town, some 20 or 30 years after leaving school. Coincidentally a teacher (probably known for her strictness) was in the members bar where we were studying our form (hoping for a win). One of my friends, who had also been taught by the teacher pointed her out. He was in shock and could barely put his words together, because heavens forbid she was smoking. It was like he had been transported back to his school days and teachers were teachers, not humans who had a life of their own. It was an interesting response.
That is a funny story, after so many years. I love it. Thanks for your comments and for visiting my blog. I missed your comments earlier, due to a hectic year end!