November Blogging Challenge: Inspirational Quote

Day 6

Share a quote or verse that inspires you and tell us why.

Tonight was the first night for the school play, and the kids did great! Well done everyone involved with the Buffalo High School Drama department! However, because I went to the play and had to do yesterday's blog post too, I am once again using a blog post I wrote awhile back . This feels slightly like cheating, but I really need to get to bed earlier than I did last night when I was up late grading.

Everlasting footprints: Apollo 14 tracks on the moon.

The quote I wrote about in the prompt (February 25, 2012) deals with the everlasting footprints that the Apollo team left on the moon.  The quote is inspirational because of the longevity of the footprints and the metaphorical meaning of the footprints I leave behind on the hearts and lives of those people I've touched. 

November Blogging Challenge: Thankful for strengths...

Day 5

What are your strengths? Which are you most grateful for?

Grades were due today at noon, so I spent last night grading papers instead of writing a blog post about my strengths. Instead, I'll share the post I wrote about my strengths for the September Blogging Challenge:

Day 15--Name three strengths you have as an educator. 

1. Content knowledge--I love my content: English Language Arts. I have enjoyed reading and writing for as long as I can remember. Analyzing literature for themes and deep thoughts, writing fiction and nonfiction of varying genres, using proper grammar--presenting all that information to my students so that they, too, can get the same joy from the written word as I do is one of my strengths as an educator. 

2. Willing to learn and try new things--My grandfather used to tell us that a day's not been wasted if you've learned something. When we can learn how to help our students grasp our material in a better way (or deeper in a way that we already knew), or when we can learn how to use a technology that helps us do our jobs better, that's a great thing, and I think that is one of my strengths. 

3. Desire that students succeed--When a teacher knows what a student can do, she can inspire the student to do even more. Sometimes the teacher is the only one in the student's corner--not even the student is always in his or her own corner. My students always know I am their loudest cheerleader even as I correct their papers and push them to better scholarship; my desire that my students succeed is one of my best strengths as their teacher.

Of those strengths, the one I'm most grateful for is the third one: desire that my students succeed. I think that as teachers we have no better strength than the desire to make a difference in our students' lives. When we believe that all students can learn and succeed, we look at our jobs as more than just jobs. We have a mission field, and our students are the harvest. Not to get too Biblical, but these fields are rich unto harvest. Now we just need the workers to bring in the harvest.

November Challenge: Gifts are nice....

Day 4

What was the nicest gift you ever received from a student/parent/colleague?

As a high school teacher, I don't receive as many gifts as those teachers of younger students. When I taught overseas for several years I did get some nice gifts.  One family gave me a lovely scarf for Christmas.  A couple of years ago I had a student give me a pair of earrings.  Compliments are always a nice gift.  It's nice to be recognized as a good teacher by students especially if they don't normally like my content.   It's also nice to hear that my colleagues consider me an inspiration.

I suppose I could go on and on about gifts I've received.  At Christmas my department always gives wonderful gifts to each other.  One of my colleagues whom I carpool with always gives great Christmas and birthday gifts.  We do a Secret Santa gift exchange, and I have gotten some really fun things from those, too.

But I think the nicest gift I was one I got anonymously--and quite recently, too.  I came back from my parking lot duty a week or so ago and found a basket of goodies on my chair.  It was filled with snacks and lotions and sodas and a note.  The note said that one of my colleagues wanted to surprise me, so I was to pick three things from the basket and then put three more things into the basket and pass the basket on to someone else.

I have no idea who put that basket on my chair.  All I know is that I needed that little encouragement just then.  I took three items out and put three items in.  Then I put the basket into someone else's room.  I don't know who has the basket right now, but I hope it is still making the rounds.  It was a blessing at just the right time.

In this month of Thanksgiving, why don't you pay it forward and show some thanks to the people in your life; it may just be the blessing they are needing at just the right time.