A Season of Thanks

               I am sorry for the delay in updating my blog, but November has been the busiest month in my North Carolina Teacher of the Year journey yet.  I have been on the road almost nonstop, averaging only one or two nights at my home per week, including the weekends.  I logged a little under 2000 miles on my state car this month, and I traveled to two different states.  I spoke to high school students, college students, college professors, business owners, community leaders, current teachers, retired teachers, politicians, and parents.  My state car was involved in a minor accident, and I went through the process of getting approval to get it repaired (it is still in the shop as I write this blog post).  To top it all off, I have been battling the common colds going around and have been sick for three out of four weeks during November!       

In spite of what has been incredibly hectic and stressful month, I have also had time while I traveled to reflect a great deal on what I am thankful for and what educators across this state have to be thankful for as it relates to being an educator.  I have seen, listened, and shared in many of the frustrations of the teachers in North Carolina over the past several months, but sometimes we need to take some time to stop and think about what makes education a truly rewarding career path.  Below are my thirty-one reasons to be thankful for being an educator, one reason for each day of November and one extra reason to remember all year.

1.       We work with students and help them find their own paths for their futures.

2.       We teach the content that we love.

3.       We work in a profession where we can always keep learning and keep improving.

4.       We see in others what they can be when they often do not see it.

5.       We are motivators.

6.       We are inspirational leaders.

7.       We give the gift of knowledge.

8.       We help others learn that knowledge is not enough; it is how you apply that knowledge that really matters.

9.       We are tour guides that show our students the world.

10.   We are role models.

11.   We are caregivers.

12.   We get to laugh—a lot—with our students, and that keeps us young.

13.   We get to share in the wonder of a snow day or a two-hour delay, and that also keeps us young.

14.   We work with parents to see their beloved children reach their potential.

15.   We see “light bulb” moments for our students when they “get” something for the first time.

16.   We know that we are the light switches that ignited that moment for our students.

17.   We have an impressive collection of pens, pencils, markers, crayons, paper, etc. that rivals any Office Depot!

18.   We work in a profession where we get to create every day.

19.   We embrace diversity and work with a microcosm of a much larger world.

20.   We collaborate with like-minded colleagues who also want to see students succeed.

21.   We are invaluable members of the community and the economy since we help develop the future leaders of our towns, cities, states, nation, and the world.

22.   We can see the world in terms of possibilities—possibilities for our students, for us, and for the future.

23.   Our workspaces are not limited to the four walls that surround us in our classrooms.  The whole world can become our classroom if we let it.

24.   We feel infinitely connected with the world as our students graduate and move to other states and countries.  Our impact is limitless.

25.   We have strong arm and back muscles from carrying materials home for planning and grading!

26.   We work in a profession that many of us would say is a calling instead of just a job.

27.   We know the different smiles that students have.  We also know that the best smile is the slowly spreading smile of a student who is developing confidence for one of the first times in his or her life.

28.   Sometimes we get the most sincere, touching notes of thanks from our students and/or their parents, and we know that the hard hours we work are worth it.

29.   Even though our eyeglasses prescriptions may get a little stronger every year, we still have eyes in the back of our heads!

30.   We have learned not to take ourselves too seriously, and we can laugh at and learn from our mistakes.

31.   Finally, WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE.  WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE.  WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

As we continue into the holiday season and our classes get busy with assessments, benchmarks, and final pushes to meet our unit planning before the first semester ends, take some time to think about why you are thankful that you are an educator.  Sure, there are many reasons I could list of why teaching is a difficult job or of why teacher morale is at an all-time low, but we hear about those reasons every day.  It is easy to complain and talk about what you are unhappy with, but without conversation about how to change those things, it only makes you more frustrated in the end. 

Take some time during this season of thanks to do what the name implies—be thankful.  And as the holiday season comes to a close, I encourage you to make all of the 2013-2014 school year be a season of thanks.  When we start to think about why we teach, then our reasons to make teaching become a more valued profession, both communally and financially, become a little stronger and a little more united.