I am acutely aware of that lately, as my Sophomore daughter shares the insights of her basketball coaches. Sometimes their team makes the "Bad News Bears" seem like olympians, and I know she is disappointed by that because she always puts 110% into her efforts. But even after the most crushing of defeats, she's at peace with it. And it's all due to the perspective she's been given by her coaches. They get things across to her that I know if they came from me would fall on deaf ears. And they're lessons she'll not only use on the court, but through her entire life.
So you might not ever know it, but you have the power to impact MANY children in a way that a parent never could, and I'm sure you do. I thank you for that, and extend that thanks to all who are in your position and use it wisely. (And when you someday know the joys of parenting, you'll no doubt see your position as teacher in a new way, because you'll see it happen to your child too.)
Wishing you the Blessings of a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2006.
WOW!!! What nice comments. Someone is in the Christmas spirit:). I'll put in a good word for you with Santa. I REALLY appreciate it.
Yes, there are lots of good stories out there and that's why I try to share some of my own--not to toot my own horn, but to give a different perspective than the negative one we get from things like the MSM all the time. I'm not any better than the next person.
I've had my own bad experiences with fellow teachers. One time a group of them accused me of doing something really bad that I did not do. Luckily, the principal found out what was really going on. It took me a whole year to be able to forgive those teachers. But now I have learned that I need to do that more often.
There are bad teachers, but there are many good ones out there too, but it's too convenient and newsworthy to hear about the former rather than the latter. I appreciate the community newspaper here that is full of stories of students and teachers excelling.
I am acutely aware of that lately, as my Sophomore daughter shares the insights of her basketball coaches. Sometimes their team makes the "Bad News Bears" seem like olympians, and I know she is disappointed by that because she always puts 110% into her efforts. But even after the most crushing of defeats, she's at peace with it. And it's all due to the perspective she's been given by her coaches. They get things across to her that I know if they came from me would fall on deaf ears. And they're lessons she'll not only use on the court, but through her entire life.
I appreciate good teachers too. I had many of them. I had a teacher as a coach one time in baseball. He knew just who to pick at the tryouts. I did terrible, but he picked me. Our team went undefeated that whole year. Sometimes, half the team was on vacation or we had even just 8 players and we still won every time. We learned the value of winning and hard work, but also how to be gracious in doing so. It helped me later as I only played on one winning baseball team for the rest of my career. :)
So you might not ever know it, but you have the power to impact MANY children in a way that a parent never could, and I'm sure you do. I thank you for that, and extend that thanks to all who are in your position and use it wisely. (And when you someday know the joys of parenting, you'll no doubt see your position as teacher in a new way, because you'll see it happen to your child too.)
I know I have some impact, but it still doesn't beat anything that a parent can give. I had my students write something about heroes. Out of 23 who did the assignment, 13 listed dads, 7 listed moms, and 3 listed cops as heroes. I thought that was pretty good. I sure love the dads who support their kids (some have to work extra hours too but are good dads as well).
We teachers, though, love seeing kids succeed, especially later in life. I had one who didn't catch onto reading until late in the year when she took off. Now she's just thriving in junior high and is a great athlete too. I am proud as punch of her.
I live in the neighborhood I teach in. I try to always tell someone, either parent or teacher when I have heard a good comment from someone about them. But I can't compete with wagging tongues. Yes, there is deserved gossip, I do know that, but there is also undeserved and untrue gossip. It's the latter I detest.
But I sure can't complain, that's for sure. A year ago a mom went around to parents of students I had had and had and a bunch of them wrote up stories on how I had supposedly impacted their child's lives. I still think they overdid it a bit:). But I was SO grateful. You can't imagine what it meant to me. It was worth a whole year's pay to me.
My approach to things is that I deal with and acknowledge the bad and that I also acknowledge and emphasize the good. Since I was very young, I have learned from both good and bad things that have happened. I haven't had it easy and would be a zillionaire if I had a penny for all the times things have gone wrong for me, but I keep going and learning and hopefully I'm a better person because of it.
Wishing you the Blessings of a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2006.
Have a wonderful Christmas. I will. Letters like yours are really encouraging and are what keep us teachers going. My next years' "political" agenda will be to see what good I can do for the community and to thank all of the neat people I know we have here.
Kudos to you and yours. Keep on being a GREAT parent. I know you are.
Another time I was at the library and saw the father of these boys who went to our school. Their mother is a teacher's aide and does a lot for the school. I went over and said hi to them. I mentioned to the father that I appreciated the boys for being the good students they were and the mom for all that she did for the school. I said a couple more good things. I later found out that the mother and father were divorced. The mom said she really appreciated me saying the good things, because all they ever heard were really bad stuff about their mom from their dad. I was so dang glad that I hadn't said anything bad. It taught me that I have to be careful what I say to others because you never know if it will come back to bite you.
As anyone who has received one of my posts knows, I am full of hot air and dum-dumness. But I REALLY appreciate your note again and hope that again, you have a great CHRISTMAS and that you receive many blessings in the new year. You deserve them for being a great parent.