today at our faculty meeting we had the speeches given by the people who nominated candidates for teacher of the year. it’s one faculty meeting that i actually enjoy going to. where else can you go and listen to thirty minutes of continuous praise of people who have made a profound impact on another human being? usually the meetings are mundane laundry lists of reminders, learning targets, assessment data, and the latest useless hoop the administration wants us to jump through.

but not this time. this time it was five candidates, five stories of people touching the lives of kids in amazing ways. one speaker was a senior who had nominated a teacher in my department. she spoke of how as a freshmen she didn’t really care about school, or this teacher and her boring class, but that didn’t stop the teacher from trying to connect with her. the student recounted how she pushed her teacher’s buttons to no avail, her teacher was still there for her. when the student found out she was pregnant and confided in the teacher that she was quitting school, her teacher made her think about what a mistake that choice would be, how that would affect her child’s view of his future and the impact it would make on hers. she changed her mind because she was given hope and now she’s graduating in may.

while she told her story and how this teacher affected her life’s direction, there was hardly a dry eye in the room. her delivery wasn’t as polished as the other speakers, but her message reached every person in the room. being the huge marshmallow that i am, i managed a few discreet sniffles. the warm fuzzies were enough to push me through the next meeting i had to sit through.

but the reason i enjoy these moments is it just reminds me why any of us do what we do what we love. because it does good. in some small way humanity’s balance of goodwill and positive karma is restored.

and when one of my obnoxious sophomores throws a tantrum because i won’t give him credit for an assignment that he did in the EIGHTH grade, i just go to my happy place and desperately access the warm teacher fuzzies.

i know they’re in there somewhere….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 7:52 pm and is filed under A Teachable Moment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.