Any teacher can relate to this. You work...and work...and work. You drag yourself out of bed in the morning, go into school to teach a full day of lessons. With the pressures of state testing coming down the pike in just less than a month, we're all maxed out stress-wise. Overwhelmed. Exhausted. Spread thin.
Tonight we had open house. The night where the kids take their parents into school and the classroom to show off their hard work. It's a nice night to see all the moms and dads following their little ones around, oohing and ahhing at all their work. My students have honestly worked the hardest they have probably ever worked in their entire lives over the past few months, so the night and praise was well-deserved.
As I was preparing for my visitors to arrive in the classroom, I was taking down chairs, straitening desks and putting the final touches on the classroom when I came across this note. It was written by a student to her mother. The note wasn't about how hard she worked, or how clean her desk was...it was about me. This particular student's note made me stop and realize that my job is much more than a test..or data points...or anything else that has no real measure for what my job is really like.
Each day teachers play a million different roles. We do our best to be there for each and every child. We're sensitive to each and every child's needs, and we make decisions every second of every day based upon those needs. Wether this student knows it or not, she helped me to realize that my job is still as important as ever...and the kids need us. They need us to be exactly who we are, and to be there for them just as we always have.
The true gift was at the end of this note, it said: "P.S.: I love school now! :)"
Thank you, my dear, for helping me love my job. xo
goodnight.
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