Category: Uncategorized

Dear Teacher,

When teachers are trusted and allowed to use their skills & talents, amazing things happen in the classroom. I know this is becoming rare and that makes it hard to be a teacher sometimes, but you do have something to offer your students and the world. Find the strength, courage, and some way to always do what is right and needed for your students sake.  You are awesome, Teacher, no matter how the system makes you feel sometimes. You are making a difference! Keep up the good fight!

Love, Teacher

Dear Teacher,
I do not normally reblog other people’s work here, but I really like this article and had to share it! We need to view our students as creative and teach them how to use that creativity. They will learn content while being creative…we just have to trust the process. Please give this a read if you have the time!
You are awesome! Keep on teaching, Teacher!
Love, Teacher

Dear Teacher,

If you are like me, this school year has you drowning in the churning mix of expectations, programs, and voices telling you what you should be doing to best teach your students.

Not that these things are wrong.  You are listening.  You are trying.  You are implementing all that you can.

But something inside of you feels lost.

You feel like a broken teacher.

I have gotten there this year, too.  You are not alone.

However, something occurred to me when I was bemoaning the educational lot that I have been given this year.  Maybe this “something” will help you the way that it helped me.

I am a good teacher!

I sometimes actually know what I am doing!

I have been to training after training.  I have some natural abilities.  I have the gift of experience on my side.

I can teach!

I am a teacher.

This thought was like the sun peeking up over the horizon of the morning of the darkest night.  Hope was renewed inside of me.  I felt like a new person…no.  I felt like an old person.  I felt like the person and teacher I used to be.

I realized that I know how to reach my students.  I remembered that I know how to help them learn and become learners on their own.  I have this.  I can do this.  I can teach!

It is not always perfect and I have a lot to learn, but I cannot discount what I can already do.  I need to build on what I have, not tear down the house and try to rebuild.

I know what my students need, and if I don’t I know how to find out.  Not only do I know the needs, I know how to meet them.  I know how to get the process of learning to be a constant in my classroom.

I can do this!

The same goes for you, Teacher.  No matter how beat-up by the extra “stuff” that you feel, you are a good teacher.  You know your students.  You have what it takes to get to them and get them to learn.  Don’t forget this.  Don’t lose this.

You still need to try to do what you are asked, keep learning, and keep listening, but you need to build on what you are already good at doing, too.  You can’t fight the current of things, but you can swim with that current and get your students where they need to be.

You need to be the teacher that your students need you to be…and that teacher is you.  You have what it takes.  You’ve got this.  Even on the hardest days.

Do not give up!  I know that it is hard.  But you are surrounded by others just like you.  We feel the same things.  We are great teachers.  We know what to do.  Let’s get out there and to it!

Let’s just keep swimming and do what is right.  We will get our students where they need to be by being who we need to be.

Are you with me?

Good.  Now let’s teach like we mean it today.  Let’s be the teacher that we were and that we can be!  Our students need us to!

You are so awesome!  You really are a great teacher!  You know what you need to do.  Do it.  You’ve got this.  Don’t give up!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

Dear Teacher,

It has been a long week.  You deserve a laugh.  I am not sure if you have seen this yet, but it is a parody of “Let it Go” from the Frozen movie that a teacher of the year in North Carolina wrote and performed for the teachers at her school on one of the work days before students come.  Enjoy!

Oh yeah, and if you missed the posts from this week, here they are.  Please share one with a teacher you know needs encouragement!

• Do What You Do…
• (Unspoken) Words from Your Students

You are awesome!  Keep going!  Keep doing all that you do!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

 

Dear Teacher,

I hope you had a wonderful break.  I trust that you are relaxed.  I hope you are refreshed.  I pray that you are ready for the rest of the school year and are ready to get back to the grind of the teacher life.

It is Monday and time for a theme song.  I tried to pick a good one…this is the theme song to start off 2014!  Click play and then read on.

Teacher, it is now 2014.  It is a new year.  It is a fresh start.  It is an open road ahead of you.

What are you going to do with it?

I know that you had a long and difficult first half of the school year.  You are tired.  No, you are more than tired…you are exhausted.  It is hard to think about going back and getting back to the daily struggles and stresses of teaching.

But you are going back in.  You do it for you students.

No matter what 2013 was like, the second half of the 13-14 school year can be different.  It will be different.  You will make it different.  You will be different and that will cause a cascade of differences to blossom around you.

We as teachers HAVE to see each new start as fresh, new, and wide open.  We can not be negative.  We can not think about what had gone wrong and what can go wrong.  We need to take the high road of being positive and starting on a positive note.  We have to approach the rest of the year with the sense of wonder of what it could be like.

We need a vision of those “could be’s” and make them in to “will be’s.”

The change starts with you.

The change starts with me.

What will you do to start making those changes?  What are you going to do differently?  How are you going to cause a domino effect of positive to the world around you in your classroom, at your school, and everywhere else that you live and go?

What does the new year have in store for you?  It is a new road ahead of you.  Make it what it could be.  Forget that road behind you.

Find out what the world has in store for you.  You can.  You will.  Make the rest of the year awesome!

You can and will do that.

You are awesome!  You are amazing!  Take this new year by storm.  Show your students how to start right and how to start awesome.  I know that you will.  You are a great teacher!  Keep on teaching, Great Teacher!

Love, Teacher

Dear Teacher,

I need to ask a favor of you.  It is not a favor for me, really.  This favor is for you.  It is for you, your students, and your family and friends.  Will you do me this favor?

I need you to stop letting the small stuff build up and knock you down.

I need you to keep getting up when the world and teaching life knocks you to the ground.

I need you to refocus on what matters most and not the issues don’t.

I want you to remember what make you great and forget about what won’t.

I want you to teach, Teacher.

You students need you to teach, Teacher

The future depends on you to teach, Teacher.

So, teach away, Teacher.  Teach away!

I know it is easy to get bogged down.  Believe me, I know.  But we need to keep moving.  We need to keep going.  We can.  We will.

We can not let the stuff that wants to stop our teaching heart to stop us.  We just can’t.  We can’t let the negative and the pressure to win.  It can’t win.

We absolutely need to keep going.  Even if it seems impossible, we need to keep going.  We need to remember that what we are doing matters.  We need to know that we matter.  We do. You matter. You are making a difference.

Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

You are awesome, Teacher!  You are amazing!  Do not give up!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

Dear Teacher,

You are a teacher.

You are strong, brave, and bold.

You are a teacher.

You work with confidence, conviction, and wisdom.

You are a teacher.

You wear yourself and pour yourself out for the sake of your students.

You are a teacher.

You are also human.

Don’t be afraid to hurt.  Don’t be ashamed to rest.  Don’t feel bad to take  break.

You are also a friend.  You are also a family member.  You are a son or daughter, you are a mom or dad, you are a grandma or grandpa, you are a brother or sister, and you are a relative.  Don’t forget that time with those you care about is equally as important as school.

You are you.  You need time to be you.  You need to remember who you are.  You need to also live as you.

You are a teacher, this is true.  Don’t forget that you are a lot of other things, too.

This weekend take time to be more than a teacher.  It is okay.  Being the other things will help you be a better teacher.  I promise!

You are so awesome.  I believe in you so much!  You are really amazing.  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher