Mr. Austin

When I was in elementary school (years ago) I always loved the teachers that would tell us stories of what happened in their lives- those lives they lived when they left school- yes, teachers don't live at school. I remember those teachers who talked about their kids, their pets, their hobbies, and of course, their husbands. This is something that I strive to do for my kids- let them into my life, let them know who I am.


With all that being said, I talk about Austin and our cat, Connery, ALL the time. I tell them how Connery whines when he gets baths, he spits up fur balls up on our duvet cover, and loves to drink fresh water from the sinks. I tell them how Mr. Austin shares his ice cream with Connery, goes on walks with me, makes me dinner (on the few occasions that he actually cooks) and lets me put my cold feet on him when we get in bed at night. These may seem like stupid things to share with my kids, but these seemingly insignificant things are what I remember about my favorite teachers.


I also use Austin a lot of times as subject of what I like to call "Life Lessons with Mrs. Watts". I share little things he does as an example of things they should try to do too. It may be telling them how he will go out of his way to walk around the car and open the door for me because that's the gentlemanly thing to. It could be how he is friends with everyone (and I mean EVERYONE- we can't go anywhere without him knowing someone) and never excludes people no matter who they are.


Well, my class this year had never met Mr. Austin until today. Austin doesn't start back to school until next week and had a free day (well he should have gone into talk to a professor, but said making me happy was the priority) so he drove 40 minutes to Summerville to eat lunch and go to recess with us. He showed up an hour early...whoops! And as soon as he walked in the door, everyone knew who he was. I mean they've seen pictures on my computer and figured it had to be him- didn't take much inferring. Well, we still had some things to get done even though he had come to school like read and talk about or story of the week and write about it. Throughout the entire hour, Austin kept making all of us laugh, whether it was making fun of me or joking around with the kids. It was amazing watching him interact with my kids. He knew which ones to really pump up saying how great their work was or some other kind of compliment. He knew which one of my "star" students needed to be asked to see his work and then when he only saw one sentence said he was pretty disappointed because he really looked forward to reading what he had to say. HA! He did a question and answer...they asked his favorite animal, color, how we met, and why he loved me...so funny! He gave high-fives to anyone who answered a question correctly. He didn't just sit with one group at lunch (we have 3 round tables and he bounced around to each one talking to everyone). He played soccer at recess in the 38 degree weather. Most importantly, he hugged each kid when he left. AMAZING. They adored him, of course. As I dismissed my kids at the end of the day I heard them talking to each about how "Mr. Austin asked me about who I had a crush on", "Mr. Austin told me I'm the fastest kid in the class", "Mr. Austin scored a goal for my team", but the greatest quote was " Mrs. Watts, you have the most hilarious husband ever."







I totally agree. And he's wonderful!