What Makes Teachers Great...

It would seem as though the start of summer invites a set of comments and unsavory input directed at teachers. After reading yet another teacher's comments about how she had to defend her time "off" in the summer, I dug out the letter you will read below. I was going to preface the letter but I don't believe you require any further explanation than to know I wrote it several years ago while enjoying my fifteen year hiatus to raise my children. I used it as a read aloud to be the exclamation point at the end of a PD session I presented for teachers entitled, "What Makes Teachers Great". 

Dear Teacher, 

Want to know what makes a teacher great? Just look inside your heart.  Close your eyes for a moment and imagine your perfect teaching day...

The room is cheery and warm, the students are smiling and having fun, but it's not too noisy.  Your lesson is a huge success as you watch the learning happen. Students are engaged and talking with one another, asking and answering questions regarding the learning intention. You can't stop the smile that crosses your face as this is the very moment your principal walks by and peeks in. Yes! It is the perfect moment but to truly appreciate its meaning, we need to consider what no one sees:

• the time you spent planning, gathering materials and organizing the space.

• the research done to find the perfect activity to compliment the learning intention.

• the jitters you felt trying to go to sleep-not jitters just for this lesson, and not really jitters at all, but the normal, just-about-every-night angst over the next day's hopes and happenings.

• the phone call home to one student's parent, marking the first positive teacher call he's ever generated.

• the phone call to another student's home, leaving the 9th unanswered message requesting to talk about her daily sadness and outbursts.

No one sees all this because you do it unnoticed, unsolicited, unassuming...and so, in this cherished moment you smile. You did this.  You created this.  You live for this.  Because you love children and because you are a great teacher.

Thank you for being a beautiful, humble servant.

Ever so gratefully,

-A Parent

Teachers, please don't ever forget that in NO OTHER profession is there as much work outside the "payable hours", as in education. Instead of feeling the need to defend, join me in smiling and nodding at anyone who believes we work only during school hours. We all know that throughout the school year as well as in the summer months, teachers' minds are in constant motion between planning lessons, contemplating student needs, trying to improve our craft and considering how to involved parents in their child's education. Finally, if you want to have some fun, feel free to invite anyone who feels slighted by teachers having the summer months "off" to attain a teaching degree and join the proud, respectable, talented ranks of educators! We will be here to support and help them adjust to this profession that's not an employment opportunity for the weak, but a 24 hour-per-day, 365 day-per-year vocation.