If you think about it, thank a teacher!
It makes a difference! Today was the first day of my 18th year as a teacher. At lunch with the rest of the district, another teacher from a different school walked up to me and said, "[Former student] still talks about you all the time, and how much of an impact you had on her." I taught her daughter more than 10 years ago and she was always a great kid. But it meant a lot to hear that today. Times change in everything, including education. One year things are great and the next may be completely different. We have good years and bad years, plenty of ups and downs as classroom teachers. It can be a tough class, an issue in your personal life, a change in administration, or a treasured colleague moving to greener pastures. Lots of things can make a year tough, and sometimes they string together, one after another. Even when there's a still a lot of good around you, sometimes the bad things outweigh all the good. That's why a comment like I received today is so importa...