You are passionate about your students and about teaching, there is no denying that. For that reason, when you have a REALLY challenging student, it is a struggle. You want to reach that student, but you also don’t want to sacrifice the other students and their learning environment. It is a mental and emotional tug-of-war that you deal with day in and day out. You do what you can and play each day by ear.
And you are TIRED!
Well, I just want to encourage you to keep it up! Don’t give up! Keep making those hard choices every day! We both know it will make a difference one day for that student(s)…even if it is in the far future and you will never know.
To help you do this and stay inspired to keep going, I went into the future and got that student to write you a letter. What, you didn’t know I had a time machine? 🙂
I’m attaching the letter to the end of this note. I hope it reminds you why you do the things you do. You are awesome and REALLY ARE making a difference! Don’t give up! Keep on teaching, Teacher!
Love, Teacher
DearTeacherLT2016 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
(c)DearTeacherLT 2013 (You may use this picture if you link back to this blog)
Dear Teacher,
I bet you had to look at the title twice, didn’t you? 🙂 I know it is June and not November…this post is not about the holiday. It is about thanks…giving it and getting it. We all need a thank you and we all have many thank-yous to give out.
I warned you that most of my posts would be about looking back at the school year this week. This one came from reflecting (or refracting) on the school year, but it does apply to everyone in any stage of a “teacher year.” Thankfulness is an anytime kind of subject. We all need to increase our thinking of thank-yous most of the time.
We all hate the feeling of not getting a thank you. We don’t do what we do for a thank you, but it is so nice to hear one once in a while. Thank-yous help us know that what we have done is appreciated and accepted by those for whom we are helping or doing something. They validate the effort we give. They help encourage us to keep doing whatever we are doing. A thank you is just, well, nice.
Teachers do not get a lot of thank-yous. We knew it was a pretty thankless job when we signed up for this. We don’t complain about not hearing the words, but inside we secretly wish to hear one more often. It is not a big deal, but it would just be helpful to hear.
Think about it. If you feel that way, who around you might feel that way? Sure, you are not getting a thank you right now, but could you give one? You know your fellow teachers would like to hear one. Tell them. Find something to thank them for, and be personal about it! Find something they did for you are that they are doing for a student and say thank you. Say it. Write it. Buy a card. You don’t know how much it will encourage them…actually, you know exactly how much it will encourage them! So you be the thank-er at you school!
Thank other people, too. Find some students that are doing great things. Thank them. Go to your administration and thank them for everything that they do. You think you have a thankless job? They hear it a lot less than you do! Go to the school receptionist, administrative assistant, custodians, school maintenance, school nurse, cafeteria workers, and any of the other many thankless people at your school and say a big THANK YOU! You know they would love to hear it!
You may not hear thank you enough, but are you giving them enough? Who do you need to say thank you to right now? Go do it! Think of three people to thank today, thank them, and then come back here and tell us all about it. You are awesome, so be awesome to others!
Before I close this post out, I need to give a thank you. Last night, this blog officially crossed the Over 10,000 Views mark! I started this blog/encouragement revolution just a little more than three weeks ago, and you all have already pushed it to that benchmark. You all are awesome! Thank you for sharing the blog with others! Thank you for all of the “likes” and shares to other sites! Thank you for all of the Facebooking, Tweeting, Edmodo-ing, Pinning, and emailing of this encouragement to others! It means a lot to have this message of hope affecting and helping others remember why they teach and that they are good teachers. I love sending this message…thank you for passing the message on! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
Teacher, thank you for letting me be a part of your teaching life! Thank you for being the awesome teacher that you are! Thank you for just being you! Keep on teaching, Teacher!
Dear Teacher/Love Teacher 