It’s been a busy week, but one of my favorites! Since changing roles in the world of education, I have been homesick for the individual conversations with students and the daily rush of watching them enjoy learning in the classroom. Thankfully many of the teachers here have invited me into their classrooms to co-teach several lessons integrating the SMARTboard and Smart Notebook lessons we’ve been working on! FUN, FUN, FUN! So, today’s quote from another of my favorite bloggers Vicki Davis (Cool Cat Teacher) is very timely! She writes:

“Educating children and teens requires passion. I believe that a good teacher has one thing undergirding everything in their classroom… an honest, genuine love for their students. Because students see frigid indifference and they tune it out. They see enough frigidity in this tough, cold world. What they want to see are warm bodies with open arms who will push them to excellence beyond what they realize that they can do. Teachers and administrators who will push their own envelope of knowledge before they ask students to do the same. Teachers who don’t just “bide their time,” call in sick to staff development, and complain. I’m sorry, folks, but if somebody invited me to a pity party … I’d skip. No one wants to be around the hopeless, indifferent frigidity of a person who has given up the dream of making a difference! Educating is truly the greatest calling on earth. Instead of just putting money in the bank, you are carving meaning into the lives of students and leaving a mark on your own soul. If you truly love your students. If you truly give them all you have and come home at the end of the day used up on your quota of words and wondering how you will even move from one room to the next. If you teach with all you have and all you are. If you care so much that you lay awake at night thinking and praying about how to reach that one student who is not just getting it…then you have achieved greatness.“