Tag: Dear Teacher

Posted in General Inspiration, Note to Teachers, Reason for Teaching

Celebrating Independence

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

Today’s post will probably mean most to my American readers, but even if you are from another country, read on…it may still speak to you!

Today is July 4th.  Happy 4th, everyone!  Today most of us will go to a cookout and/or watch some fireworks while we spend time with friends and family, as well as a number of other traditions people may have.  It is a day to celebrate and to remember when our country was officially founded.

July 4th is the day that we mark the Second Continental Congress’ passing and signing of a resolution of independence from England called the Declaration of Independence (though there is a lot of debate about when it was actually signed by most of the people who signed it).  This document was the founding document of the United States as an independent country with its own government and no longer under the reigns of England.  Today is the day that we celebrate that independence.

This morning, I read up a bit on the traditions, celebrations, and meaning of the 4th of July holiday (Wikipedia had some pretty fascinating tidbits on it).  I found out some interesting pieces of information about it.  It was almost an instant holiday.  The year after the Declaration was passed, there was a celebration on the 4th in Philadelphia (the capitol at the time and where the Continental Congress met), and the party even included fireworks!  The tradition of celebrating on that day continued year after year and spread throughout the country.  To me, this seems pretty amazing that the holiday basically began the year after the event!  But it was a pretty amazing event, and it should be remembered, honored, and celebrated!

Now, how am I going to bring this back to teaching?  I don’t know that I need to, but I think I will anyway.  🙂

Think about your students.  I know that we all teach students of different backgrounds and each year our students are different.  Most of us are on summer break, as well.  For this reason, just think about your students in general.  Some come from excellent homes and environments…other don’t.  Some have amazing and obvious gifts and talents that will take them far…but not all of them.  Some know how to learn, think, and explore knowledge independently…but not every single one of your students.  Some know how to be independent learners…a lot may not.  Some students know what it means to be free and what freedom means…other have no idea.

We are teachers.  We are like the armies, soldiers, and volunteers that fought for the freedom for our countries founders to be able to declare independence from England.  We have to fight for our students to know thinking independence.  Without the freedom to think on their own, they will never know true freedom as an adult…and I believe that most of our job is to get students ready for the future, no matter what we may teach.  We need to know each student and what their individual learning styles and need are, and then teach them how to know how to do this on their own.  They will not always have us fighting for them…we need to teach them to fight on these battles on their own!

I know this post may be a stretch, but a part of celebrating independence is understanding what independence is.  We as adults have a pretty good understanding of what freedom is.  Not just freedom in the sense of the freedoms we have in our country, but freedom of mind…to stand and think on our own.  We need to remember that our job is to help our students to be able to do the same one day.  We are fighting for their freedom to be who they will be one day, on their own.  Don’t give up the fight for your students’ independence!

(c)DearTeacherLT (You may use the image if you link back to this blog.)
(c)DearTeacherLT (You may use the image if you link back to this blog.)

You are an awesome teacher!  You are a great freedom fighter!  Don’t give up and don’t ever stop!  You are changing the future one student at a time!  This makes you amazing!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!  Happy Forth of July!

Love, Teacher

PS…The picture is from when I went on a cruise and got to sail past the Statue of Liberty.  It was hard not to think about what it must have been like for the millions of people that sailed to Ellis Island from around the world in hopes of finding the freedom promised in America.  Are you that beacon of hope of future independence for students?  I want to be.

Posted in Picture Note, Teaching Power, You Are Awesome!!!

Teacher Superpower – Differentiation Control

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

(c)DearTeacherLT (You may use the image if you link back to this blog.)
(c)DearTeacherLT (You may use the image if you link back to this blog.)

Dear Teacher,

You are a superhero with many superpowers.  You have super vision to see things that other people don’t see, and you have the power of Differentiation Control.  You know you students.  You know what each student needs, and you strive to give them every opportunity and condition they need to learn and grow.  You are the master of your content and you make sure every student is ableto learn based on their needs.  You use your superpower with skill and grace, Super Teacher.

You are awesome!  You do what you do so well.  Fight on and be the hero your students need you to be.  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

Posted in Get Psyched!, Theme Song, You Are Awesome!!!

(your students are) Holding Out for a Hero

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

I have decided to make Monday morning posts about motivation and getting you psyched up for the week.  As you saw last Monday, I think music and theme songs a great way to do this.  Today I am going to mix that with another thing that jacks me up and gets me motivated to do great things…superhero movies!  I may be showing a little bit of my inner-geek with this, but I can’t help it.  Superhero movies make me want to go out and do awesome things!  This is a theme song that you might want to watch after you get done reading…but go ahead and have it playing while you read the rest of the post.  🙂

Teacher, you are a superhero with superpowers.  You see things other people don’t see.  You can think in ways other people don’t think. You do feats of planning and preparation that other people could not keep up with.  You grade with heart…looking for more than what was and wasn’t correct, you look for what needs to be worked on and honed in each student.  You do great and amazing things…even if other people do not always see you do them.

Your students need a hero!  They need someone to fight for them.  They need someone to take a stand for them.  They need someone who will not settle for mediocrity in them.  They need someone to see the potential in them and help them live up to that potential!  They need you, Super Teacher.

Be that hero for your students…

  • Plan like you mean it and know you are doing something that needs to be done for your students.  This goes double for teachers on summer break…PLAN!  You are giving yourself weapons to fight with for next year.  You are honing your superpowers!  Plan like you are a hero in training!
  •  Love on your students.  Get to know them.  When you know them, you are so much more invested in the fights you need to fight for them!  Summer teachers, plan for getting to know your kids and investing in their lives…the time planning for this will pay off in big dividends when you are more invested in each student.
  • Use your gifts and talents.  Do what you do well, and keep on doing it.  Play to your strengths and plan for ways to do so.
  • FIGHT!!  Fight for your students.  Fight for what is right.  Do what you know is right.  Fight for what you need to help your students succeed.
  • Never give up!  When the fight is tough and the going is rough, DO NOT GIVE UP!  Be the hero and keep fighting.  It will pay off!

You are a hero and you are awesome!  You do amazing things…keep doing them.  Fight hard to be the hero your students need.  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

Don’t forget to check out the giveaway contest on the Facebook Page.  It is over at midnight on Friday, July 5th, 2013.

Posted in Challenge, Secret Occupations of Teachers, Weekend Note

Secret Occupations of Teachers (S.O.o.T.) Inaugural Post

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

As I promised, I am kicking off a series of posts that I will write over the weekends called The Secret Occupations of Teachers, or S.O.o.T. for short.  I am going to talk about some of the “extra” things that teachers do or compare some of what we do to other occupations.  The  goal of this series is to give you some comfort in knowing other people understand what you do (along with some encouragement and challenges in some of your roles) and to let other people in on the parts of a life of a teacher that they may not know about.  I am excited about these posts, and I hope you will be to!

Today’s S.O.o.T. is gardener/landscaper.  These jobs deal with the care and upkeep of plants, for the most part.  When you think of gardeners, you think of gardens, flowers, and vegetables.  When you think of landscapers, you think of mowing, weeding, planting, and taking care of yards and landscapes.  Gardeners/landscapers understand plants.  They know what grows when and the circumstances needed for ideal growth…and they know how to create those circumstances.  They know weeds.  They know how to identify them and get rid of them.  They know plants, understand them, and use what they know and understand to grow beautiful and wonderful things.

Acknowlegement

Teacher, you are a landscaper and a gardener.  You don’t deal in plants, you deal in people.  The soil that you work with is the minds and hearts of your students.  You have to know this soil.  You have to understand the circumstances in which you are tying to grow.  You get to know you students.  Learn who they are and how they think.  With this you identify weeds that need to be worked on and pulled out.  Sometimes this is easy, but more often it is quite hard.  Once the ground is ready, you plant seeds of knowledge and learning.

The seeds grow differently in each student, and you know that the circumstances needed for growth change from student to student.  You know that you cannot force the seeds to grow, so you make sure that you enable the soil in each student to have everything that is needs to allow growth.  You nurture.  You feed and water the seeds.  When weeds of misunderstanding grow, you address them quickly with which ever means are necessary.  You do all that you can to ensure growth of the seeds, and then you do the only thing you can do…wait.

You wait and see what grows from the soil.  You are patient.  You are understanding.  You change things as needed when the fruit of understanding looks weak with a student.  You do all that you can to make sure that you have done all that you can to see understanding bloom and take shape.  And when it is all said and done, you stand back and enjoy the beauty of understanding students that has grown from your hard work.

(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the picture if you link back to this blog.)
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the picture if you link back to this blog.)

Encouragement

Teacher, I know that this role of landscaper/gardener is hard.  You have to be vigilant.  You can’t just mow the lawn once or pull up the weeds of misunderstanding a couple of times and be done.  No, you have to keep at it.  Day after day with each and every student, and you do without complaint.  But it is hard.

Don’t give up.  I know when you pull up that same weed from one student the 1001st time you do not want to do it again, but keep doing it.  Something beautiful WILL grow.  Just keep going.  Keep at it.  You know it is worth it in the end.  Focus on what you want to see grow and then do what it takes to make that happen.

You are an amazing gardener.  You are a wonderful landscaper.  Keep at it!  You can do it!  You are awesome!

Challenge

Remember this analogy as you plug away with your students.  When the going gets rough and they just don’t seem to be getting it, remember that you are a landscaper/gardener and that if you keep working at it something wonderfully beautiful will grow.  When school starts (or right now, if you are teaching), find the most difficult students, and see them as a garden.  Find somewhere to write down three things that you want to see grown in them by the end of the year.  Work hard at seeing those things grow.  Pick three students and three things to grow in them for each.  Do what it takes to see the growth.  Keep notes on the growth you see.  At the end of the year, celebrate the beauty you have watched blossom!

You are an awesome landscaper/gardener, and don’t ever forget that!  I hope this has spoken to you and given you some hope.  I know it has done that for me just writing this.  I am going to take the challenge myself next year.  I hope that you do the same!

You are awesome!  You are believed it!  And you are supported!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

PS…

Don’t forget to check out the Facebook Page tonight (Sunday) for the giveaway/contest.  The contest closes at midnight on Friday, July 5th!

Posted in Note to Teachers, Teacher Testimony, You Are Awesome!!!

The Red Panda

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the picture only if you link back to this blog.)
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the picture only if you link back to this blog.)

Dear Teacher,

Wow, I picked a timely issue when I decided to write today’s post.  I have been sitting on this idea for almost a month, and I thought today would be a great day to write it.  When I looked up red pandas to get a little more background information, this news story about a Red Panda that escaped from the National Zoo that was found today!

Anyway, the Red Panda.

I have been interested in red pandas ever since I was a kid and heard about them and saw one for the first time at, of all places, the National Zoo in Washington, DC.  I really wanted to see the giant pandas that day, but Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling were in their buildings and did not come out that day.  My attention was brought to the red pandas.  I first I thought that they might be related to the panda bears, so I was excited.  That excitement waned when my dad read that they were not even bears but were actually more like the Chinese raccoon (because they are related to the raccoon and found primarily in China).

I was disappointed, but the red panda has stuck with me since that day.  I, like a lot of people, first heard the name red panda and thought it was a panda bear.  It turns out, according to Wikipedia, that the “panda” in the red panda’s name is from the word in the language of Nepal for “eater of bamboo.”  In terms of word meanings, the giant panda and red panda are related, but not else.  I was confused and let  down by the red panda because of this.

In the years since, I have grown to become affectionate for red pandas.  I have learned more about them and I have come to see that they are amazing animals.  They are beautiful, rare, and kind of fun to watch (when they are not sleeping…which the ones at the zoo where I live do a lot of).  They have an interesting history and background, and they are a just cool animal…even if their name is misleading.

I share all of this, because we teachers are red pandas.  So many people confuse and misunderstand what we do and who we are.  People here the name “teacher,” and they immediately think of teachers they have had in the past or the picture of teachers on TV, in movies, or on the news.  None of these media sources, or even memories of school years past, are an accurate picture of who we are today and what we do (and have to put up with).  It is hard to truly understand teachers and teaching until you walk a few thousand miles in our shoes.

Teacher, you are the Red Panda.  People may not understand you, but that is okay with you.  You are still an amazing and special creature.  You do what you do, and you do it well, no matter what other people think!  You are the Red Panda of the human world, and you wear that with pride.

Teacher Red Panda, be proud of who you are.  Be proud of what you do.  Don’t take the misunderstanding of teaching to heart.  Help people understand.  They will come to see how awesome you are!

You are awesome!  So awesome!  You are believed in and you are special.  You make a difference and you are changing the future!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

Posted in General Inspiration, Picture Note, You Are Awesome!!!

Yeeeaaah Buoy!

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to this blog.)
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to this blog.)

Dear Teacher,

Be that buoy today!  Mark out where danger is.  Lead people to the shore.  Be a beacon of hope in troubled waters.  You are AWESOME!!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

Posted in New Day, Pep Talk, You Are Awesome!!!

The Eye of the Teacher…er…Tiger

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

It is Monday.  The start of a week.  I don’t know about you, but I need to get a little psyched up for it.  We need a theme song to start us up, don’t you think.  Click play, and once the song starts, keep reading.  🙂

Teacher,  this is your week.  You’ve got this!

If you are still teaching right now, you are ready for this week.  You have your plans.  You have your ideas.  You have your heart for your students.

Don’t worry about the little things.  They are not important.  Your students are important.  You work hard for them.  They need you.  Remember why you do this!  Now, get out there and teach your heart out!

Keep your eye on the goal of changing the future through your students.  Look ahead at the potential they have.  Help them see it.  Give them the expectation and help them rise up to it.

You’ve got this!  You are ready.  Go awesome the heck out of this week!  You will change lives this week!  Go do it, Teacher!

If you are on summer break right now, you still have a battle to fight.  Some of you need to relax and take a break.  School stuff can wait.  You need to wind down from the year.  You need to disconnect, unwind, and let your mind and body heal from the year of a teacher.  School things will still be here when you are done.  Your students next year need you to do this…they don’t need a fried out teacher!

Some of you need to stop relaxing.  Don’t get into the summer lazy cycle.  Spend at least an hour a day on getting stuff prepared for next year.  Get pumped up for everything you can do next year and start planning!

It is all too easy to put things off for later.  Do a little every day.  You will thank yourself later!  You need to keep a little of that teaching mindset and don’t completely check out.  If I am calling you out, don’t feel bad…I am calling myself out here!

Next year is coming.  Your students need the best of you.  Relax, if you need to.  Stop relaxing, if you need to.  You are going to have an AWESOME year next year…so this week needs to be an AWESOME week to help that happen.  It will be an awesome week.  You will be awesome.  You are awesome!

(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use this picture if you link back to my blog.)
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use this picture if you link back to my blog.)

You have the eye of the Teacher…so live it out!  You are amazing!  You will make this week great!  You are awesome!  Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

For more hope and encouragement: @DearTeacherLT (Twitter), Dear Teacher/Love Teacher Facebook Page, and the Dear Teacher TpT Store.

Grand Opening!


Dear Teacher,

Great Saturday morning to you!  This is just a quick post to announce the Grand Opening of the Teachers Pay Teacher “Dear Teacher” Store.  I have had many requests to make the picture messages available as printable posters, and I have decided that a TpT store would be the easiest way to do this.  I have also been encouraged to come up with some other materials and resources for teacher encouragement and hope, and I am working on some ideas.  These will be available at the TpT store, as well.

I promise, this is not about trying to make money off of what I am providing for free here at the blog.  This is a response to requests from you!

If you have any ideas for some resources you would like me to think about and work on, please let me know here or shoot me an email at dearteacher@outlook.com.

Have a wonderful Saturday!  You are awesome!  As always, keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

For more hope and encouragement: @DearTeacherLT (Twitter), Dear Teacher/Love Teacher Facebook Page, and the Dear Teacher TpT Store.

Posted in Hope for Teachers, Note to Teachers, Reflection

Happy and Not-So-Happy Endings

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

Well, my hiatus was cut a little short because of a short summer school teaching opportunity that has come up.  Because I am ending my teaching sabbatical early, I have decided to go ahead and come back to the blog, too.  It is good to be back.  I hope that you did not miss me too much.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the posts of my Substitute Teachers.  I thought each post was insightful, challenging, and full of hope.  I hope that you feel the same!

Today’s message is about endings.  Endings are what I am thinking about as my little vacation comes to a close.  Endings are inevitable.  They will come no matter what…and it can be a challenge or a hope to keep that in mind.

When things are going well, an ending does not seem like a good thing.  The end of a break.  The end of a vacation.  Or just the end of a great year with your students.  Good things do not last forever and it is sad to see them go.  These kind of endings do not have to be bad, though.  There is a ways to view them as a positive, and this is where the challenge comes in.

  •  Keep the end in mind to help you savor every wonderful moment…take it in and enjoy every fleeting second.
  • Memories of good times that have ended give you something to hang on to when things get rough…build those memories well when things are good!
  • Good times have to end sometime…remember this…we grow more and learn more during difficulties.  What kind of teacher would you be if things only went well?

The flip-side of endings are the endings of not-so-good times.  When things are not quite as awesome, and the “going get rough,” endings are the light at the end of the tunnel.  Knowing that there is an ending gives you the opportunity and ability to have some hope.  The following are a few thoughts for you if you are going through one of those phases right now.

  •  Nothing lasts forever, especially the hard times, so don’t give up!
  • You are growing and becoming a better teacher right now, don’t lose sight of that.
  • I know it is Kelly Clarkson cliché, but what doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger…when you come out on the other side you will be stronger and better for it.
  • The light at the end of that tunnel is getting larger every day. Hold on to hope.  You will make it through!
(c)DearTeacherLT (You may use this picture if you link back to this blog.)
(c)DearTeacherLT (You may use this picture if you link back to this blog.)

What is your impending ending right now?

Are you in a good time that will soon be over?  Savor it.  Take it all in.  Enjoy it and make memories.  You will need those memories eventually!

Are you in a down time right now?  Does everything seem to be going up in flames around you?  The end is near!  It will not last forever!  Find those “good times” memories, hang on to them, and hold on tight for the arrival of that light at the end of the tunnel!

Teacher, you are amazing.  You are awesome!  You are believed in and you are getting stronger every day!  You are changing lives and making a difference!

Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

For more hope and encouragement: @DearTeacherLT (Twitter), Dear Teacher/Love Teacher Facebook Page, and the Dear Teacher TpT Store.