Tag: hope for teachers

Posted in Challenge, Hope for Teachers

Homework of Hope

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

(c)DearTeacherLT2013

Dear Teacher,

As a fellow teacher, I would be remiss not to give you a little homework.  What is a teacher without an assignment to give?  This is, in a sense, happy homework.  I hope that you will give this challenge a try!

Let me give just a little background.  If you have been reading for the last couple of weeks, you know that this blog was born out of a project that I gave myself.  I challenged myself to write a personal note to each of my students.  As I wrote, I found myself wishing I had someone to write me some words of encouragement.  I realized that most teachers probably felt the same way, so I took on the grander challenge of trying to encourage as many teachers as I can…that can’t be hard.  Cheering up and giving hope to an entire group of people in potentially one of the most discouraging careers.  Piece of cake.  🙂

What I found though all of this, is that giving hope gives me hope.  It spurs me on to bigger and greater things.  Helping you helps me be better.  Talking about your awesomeness helps me feel a little more awesome.  This has led me to another challenge at school.  I hope to write an encouraging note to every teacher in the next two weeks before school gets out.  I want my school to have a climate of hope and encouragement.  Maybe I can be one of the catalysts for this!

That leads me to your homework assignment.  I want you to be a part of spreading the awesome around.  I want to help facilitate you as a catalyst of hope and encouragement where ever you are.  I know you can do it!  You can because you are awesome!

The Assignment:

  1.  Random Acts of Awesome: I want you to pick three fellow teachers and do something randomly great for them.  Write a note.  Bring them coffee.  Watch their students at bus holding.  Surprise them with awesome and then tell them it is because of how awesome you think they are, and then tell them to pass on the awesome.  You can do this even if you are out of school for the summer already.  Take someone to lunch.
  2. Share a Post:  I have had a lot of feedback about how this blog has encouraged people.  I want you to share this encouragement with as many people as you can.  Part two of your assignment is to pick your favorite post of this blog and share it somewhere.  Share it on Facebook with people you know need it.  Tweet it.  Share it in an Edmodo group or email it to teachers at you school.  If you were encouraged, it will probably encourage others.
  3. Tell Me About It:  The last step of your assignment is to come back here and tell me about it.  What did you do?  What was the reaction?  Did it spur on others to join the encouragement revolution?  The stories will very much encourage me and I can’t wait to read them.  If you do not want to post your story here, you can email me: dearteacher@outlook.com.

(c)DearTeacherLT2013

I was going to say that the assignment is due Friday, but take as much time as you need!  I can’t wait to hear about it!

Teacher, you are awesome.  Go out there and be awesome to others!

Keep on teaching, Teacher!

Love, Teacher

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

Posted in Cheer Up, Friday Note, You Are Awesome!!!

Friday of Awesomeness!

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

It is Friday!  You have survived the week.  No, you did not survive it…you thrived in it.  You made a difference in the lives of your students, even if they don’t know it yet or not.  You inspired.  You set mental fires.  You perspired…but it was worth it.  You got your students to think…and got them thinking more on their own.  Your students learned because your taught them how to learn.  You taught your heart out, and now your students can even teach others.

You hit milestones with somestudents.  You crossed educational thresholds with other students.  Some students reached the benchmarks set…some students surpassed them.  Because of this week, some of your students will never be the same.  Because of you.  You taught them to think, learn, love others, have compassion, believe in themselves, and the goodness that lies in the hard work it takes to reach goals.

Teacher, you did not just make it through the week, you made the week yours!  You took the week, you tamed it, and you made something awesome out of it.  Celebrate!  It is Friday!  You came, you taught, you conquered!  You awesomed the heck out of this week!

You are so awesome!  You are doing a great job!  Your work with your students DOES matter, and don’t ever forget that.  You are a difference maker!

Keep on teaching, Teacher!  I believe in you!

Love, Teacher

PS… Here is a little video I found this morning.  I hope it inspires you like it inspired me.

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

Posted in Uncategorized

A Chance for Compassion…

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

I don’t know you.  I don’t know where you teach.  I don’t know your students.  What I do know is that yesterday a tragedy ravaged a small town in Oklahoma.  As teachers, whose hearts are constantly focused on the good for others, our hearts break.  No matter where you live, you have a broken heart for the people in Moore and surrounding areas.  We want to do all that we can to help.  Teachers are people marked by their compassion, and you are no exception to that rule.

Will your students have a broken heart for what happened yesterday?  Many will and many won’t.  If your students, like mine, have no frame of reference for what happened or even know what happened they may not know how to feel compassion for the people of Moore.  What can you do today to help your students see past themselves?  In the light of the horribleness that happened, how can you help your students develop a sense of compassion?

I know that we already have our lessons boxed up and ready for today.  I know that my students are working on a project and we are under the pressure of time to finish.  However, I feel like I really need to take a pause and find a way to work this in today.  Can you do that?  Can you take some time from your lessons and help the students to understand what happened and help them see there are people hurting right now?

Compassion is natural, on some level, in most human beings.  However, it does need to be nurtured and developed as well.  How are you doing this with your students?  Will you take some time today to help the next generation learn how to love others and see past themselves?  I know that I have to…it feels like something that is important to do.  My heart breaks for Oklahoma right now.  I want my students to feel that in some way, too.

Keep the people of Moore and all of Oklahoma, especially those who have lost loved ones, in your prayers and thoughts today.  Reach out and help in what ever way you can.  Help your students to want to do the same.

Keep on teaching, Teacher!  You are awesome for all that you do to help your students learn and become better people!

Love, Teacher

For more hope and encouragement: @DearTeacherLT

Posted in Hope For Students, Hope for Teachers

Hopelessly Hopeful

Posted on by Dear Teacher/Love Teacher

Dear Teacher,

A little warning.  I am a little stuck on the idea of hope right now.  Hope is the light at the end of the tunnel.  Hope is that knowledge that things can and will get better.  Hope is the life perserver holding you up as you are tossed around by the waves of life.  We need hope.  Hope for now.  Hope for the future.  And hope that the past will not weigh us down for ever.  We absolutely need hope.  And so do our students.

Hope lets students know that they can do what ever you expect that they can do.  Hope helps students learn when all they can think about is the video games that they want to play at home.  Hope is the key to unlocking their future no matter what environment they are growing up.  Hope is vital to our students.  As teachers, it is one of our most important jobs to be hope dispensers.

For this reason, most of us are hopeless.  We are hopeless believers in our students.  We are hopelessly looking to the future in which our students are succeeding.  We are hopelessly dependent on what we know is true…our students CAN learn, CAN succeed, and CAN acheive.  We are hopeless because we are constantly pouring hope into our students.

Teacher, keep on hoping.  Keep on immersing your students in the hopes that you have for them.  Keeping on being the light at the end of their tunnel.  Keep on being hopelessly hopeful.

You are on the right track, friend.  You are making a difference!  You are rewriting the scripts for your student’s future.  You are making things better!  Keep going.  Even when it does not look like it, you are providing what your kids need…hope.

You are awesome!  Keep on teaching, teacher.  Be hopelessly hopeful today.  Make your students wonder what is wrong with you.  🙂

Love, Teacher

For more hope and encouragement: @DearTeacherLT