Do you still love teaching

One of my former students who has now become an excellent math teacher wrote me an e-mail the other day.  He asked, "do you still love teaching, with the observations, SLO's, meetings etc."

I knew immediately that my response was going to be yes!!!!  What I did not realize was the analogy that I was going to use right away.  I had not spoken to him in a while so I did not know if he had a serious girlfriend which would enable him to relate to my analogy even better.  What i told him was that I love my wife but that does not mean we do not argue.  That even though we love each other we still have differences of opinion on how to go about certain things.

Education is a great field, that while it does not draw people into it because of the money, it allows teachers the unique opportunity to make a difference in a persons life.  I have seen on a daily basis how some of the best teachers in our building truly make a difference.  The impact that they have on their students inspires me to become a better teacher.  That when you peak into their rooms these teachers put aside all the other bs and just make students better each and everyday.

We all fall into the Woh me, this life is just too tough but the truth is that it is easy to be gritty when things are good.  Now we are in some tough times in education which is testing the grit of all the really good educators in the system.  It is also the time where we can not afford to lose any of our great teachers.  If we expect our students to be gritty we must model that GRIT for them.

I continue to advocate that our best and brightest students need to join the field of education.  We need to have bright people who bring about education reform that really fixes many of our problems.  Again, while education does not pay well, it is very important to the future of our country.  Ask the best teachers in your school the feeling that they get when they make a difference and you will realize that getting involved in education makes you rich.