Tag: educator encouragement

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.

Posted in General Inspiration, Teacher Testimony, Teaching Power

I Triple Dog Dare You…

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

My post this morning did not really count as a post, since it was just an announcement, so I went looking for something to inspire and motivate your teaching senses this Saturday morning.  Boy, did I find something!  I still have a tear or two as I type this.  I triple dog dare you to watch this without tears and a having a renewed heart for your students and what you do!

Teacher, what you say and what you do has deep and lasting impressions!  You are changing the future every day!  You are so awesome!  Have an amazing Saturday!  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 Get Psyched!, New Day, Pep Talk, You Are Awesome!!!

Dawn of a New Day

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

Today is a new day!  It is a bright start!  Yesterday does not matter, good or bad.  Today is something brand new.  Get out there and shine your awesomeness!  You will do great and wonderful things!

If yesterday was rough, today is hasn’t been written yet.  Don’t let yesterday ruin today!  Make today amazing!

If yesterday was a good day, today is just starting.  Don’t rest on yesterday, make today an even better day!

Don’t be sad.  Don’t be lazy.  Don’t let today just happen to you…you happen to today.  Make it a day unlike any other!

Help someone.  Cheer up someone.  Encourage someone.  Do something that you and others will remember and make a difference that will be remembered!

You are so awesome, Teacher!  Awesome the heck out of today!  You are amazing and believed in!  Be awesome today!

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.

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

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

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.

Posted in Challenge, Guest Post, Homework Assignment, Hope for Teachers, Reason for Teaching

Substitute Teacher Subway Station

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

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

Dear Teacher,

As you may have noticed, the last week and a half on the blog has been guest posts by other people.  I have taken a break from school and school-related activities and others have stepped in as “Substitute Teachers.”  I am very grateful for the work they have put in to writing and promoting their posts.  They have done a great job!  Thank you, Substitute Teachers!

For reasons that I will bring up tomorrow, today is the last day of my hiatus from blogging (and teaching/planning).  I decided to make today’s post a “clip show” of the Substitute posts so that you have a chance to read and see something you may have missed while I was out.  This post is like a “subway station” of the guest posts.  I am also going to make this a quick and easy homework assignment.  Read at least three of these posts, pick your favorite, comment on it, and then share it (Facebook, Edmodo, Twitter, etc…).  I will be nice and not assign a due date.  🙂

Enjoy and share the hard work of my Substitute Teachers!

Alright, don’t forget to do your homework!  I hope you enjoy each of these as much as I have!

Teacher, you are so awesome!  You are going to do something great today, if your are still teaching or on summer break.  People with the teacher’s heart do amazing things every day…and you are one of those people.  Go out there and awesome the heck out of today!  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 General Inspiration, Guest Post, Hope for Teachers

A Teacher “Prayer”

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

Anonymity is popular among my Substitute Teachers.  Today’s post is from another veteran teacher, to whom I tip my hat.  You teachers who have kept at this for decades, I salute you!  I hope to be one of those “decades” teachers one day!

This message is short, sweet, and perfect for a Monday.  Please enjoy and apply!  Have a great week!

Dear Teacher,

I came across this “prayer” many years ago.  I’m not sure who the author is.

Enable me to teach with

WISDOM

for I help to shape the mind.

Equip me to teach with

TRUTH

for I help to shape the conscience.

Encourage me to teach with

VISION

for I help to shape the future.

Empower me to teach with

LOVE

for I help to shape the world.

Whatever your beliefs, Teacher, I think it’s a great reminder to us.  May we all teach with wisdom, truth, vision, and love.  The stakes are high! And not just for testing and standards. Our words and actions help to shape our students’ minds and consciences.  We help to shape the future and the world!  What an awesome job that is, Teacher!  It’s awesome in the many meanings of the word “awesome”!  It inspires awe to think of our responsibilities and potential.  But it’s also awesome and great thatwe (yes, us, Teacher!) have been given this opportunity.  How amazing is that?

Have a great day, Teacher!
Love,

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