Show the Professional respect teachers deserve with the 'World's Best Teacher' Gift Certificate for Teachers Appreciation Week, 6th- 12th of May, 2018. Happy Hearts Day! This day our topic in english was all about phrases and clauses.At first I thought that this lesson will be difficult to me but I'm wrong. The topic was easy yet confusing. My english teacher asked us if what is the importance of learning phrases and clauses. Dear Bobcat Parents, Happy first day of school and welcome to the 20-21 school year! We are so glad that you are joining us to kick off.

Before I even start, I want to say my job isn’t thankless. That’s the point of this post. I have one of the most rewarding professions in the world and I am very grateful for my job. I am a teacher.

Being a teacher is a very difficult profession. Choose wisely and carefully before choosing to be a teacher. It is a very rewarding profession but it requires a lot of sacrifice. I see those sacrifices by teachers around me every day. The biggest sacrifice I see by teachers around me is a sacrifice of time. Precious, precious time given to make sure student needs are met through carefully planned and prepared lessons; reviewing assessments and providing feedback; meeting with students and/or parents to help each student receive a quality education; and numerous other ways. This time is given early in the morning, in the evenings late into the night, and even on the weekends and over holiday breaks. This time is taken at school, at home, and even on the road. I see teachers sacrifice their pride, habits, things they like in order to change so that they can better meet student needs. They attend conferences to learn about their flaws and how to make changes. There are so many ways that teachers make sacrifices. And they make sacrifices because they care about students. (Here I would like to interject a thank you to all the wonderful teachers in my life past and present.)

Because if you don’t care about students, why would you choose to be a teacher? Sure you “get summers off” (wink), but really teachers give long hours (much over 40 typically) for relatively little pay for the emotional, physical, and mental cost. You slave away doing your homework (studying ways to improve teaching, planning and preparing and repreparing and adjusting lessons as you strive for the best lesson, reviewing assessments to give feedback, calling parents of students you are concerned about, talking to team-teachers about students you are concerned about, etc.) and then you slave away in class (teaching, assessing, reteaching, answering questions, talking to students you are concerned about, solving problems, etc.) And then you slave away in your brain. You are thinking about your students, your lessons, things going on at school, etc. as you drive home from work (mine is a twenty minute drive), as you do your chores, as you struggle to fall asleep, in your dreams, etc.

Occasionally you get a formal thank you. The parent group gives us a wonderful surprise (typically much appreciated food–we burn a lot of energy) a few times a year. But really students are the reward. Teaching is the reward. Here are some of the rewards I love:

Gradingteach To Be Happy Birthday Wishes

Student enthusiasm. I love to see the light in a student’s eye as they are so excited to talk to you. I love to see it as they tell me how amazing their weekend was because they lost a soccer game. But it wasn’t amazing because they lost. It was amazing because they had a blast playing and they are so happy that you want to hear about it. I love to see it as I have to pause teaching to tell a couple students that they should be listening as I explain something only to have them explain their discussion about chemical and physical properties. Who knew that they weren’t talking about their latest crush? I love to see it as they shout out answers or scribble on whiteboards or whatever else might help them learn. Sure this isn’t every moment of every day but I love to see kids who want to learn.

Ah ha moments. I love to see when students finally get it. You can almost see the light bulb pop up over their heads as a difficult concept finally clicks. I love to hear the chorus of “Oh!”s when they finally understand. I love to the glow in their eyes and the energy that spikes as they truly learn something. I love the resulting desire to learn.

Student thank yous. You have the students who bring all of their teachers little Christmas or end of the school year goody bags. You have the students who thank you every time you hand them a paper even if they did poorly on it or if you’re handing them a test and you know they hate tests. You have students who say hello every time they see you. You have students who poke their head in your classroom years down the road and say, “Hey, do you remember me? Thank you for making me [insert assignment or skill or something else they hated at the time but love you for now.]”

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Hope. I love to see hope. True hope. Life is hard. Learning is hard. There’s no point in sugar coating those facts. But life is full of hope. Learning is full of hope. I love to see students recognize that a task I have given them is going to challenge them and also recognize that, although it will be hard, they are very capable of succeeding. That although they may make some mistakes along the way, they will learn what they need to and be rewarded by it. I love to see students accept responsibility, choose to live up to it, and choose to be happy. Learning is a choice and I love when students choose to learn.

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Student growth. I have a love-hate relationship with grading. Hate because it takes so long to carefully grade something. Love because I love to see student improvement and success. Fortunately, not all student growth is measured by grading. Whether informally or formally assessed, I love seeing student growth. I love looking at what they were capable of at the beginning of a week and seeing what they are capable of at the end of the week. I love looking at what they were capable at the beginning of a month and seeing what they are capable of at the end of a month. And a quarter, semester, and year. Learning is so cool.

With that, I’m going to quit for the night. Life as a teacher is hard. It’s often painful and frustrating. This post was inspired by some frustrating situations surrounding the world of education that caused me to wonder why I am a teacher. Then I was reminded that the things that frustrate me don’t have to do with actual “teaching” and thus don’t have to do with why I am a teacher. I am a teacher because I love to teach. I am a teacher because I love to the joy humans feel as they learn something new. So although teaching may have it’s hard moments, I am choosing to focus on the positive. I am choosing to focus on students.