Teaching may not be the best paid profession. But the joy of teaching is unsurpassed.
Fellow teachers, as you engage with students and facilitate their learning, never forget that you have a significant long-term impact on their lives as you influence not only their academic achievements but also their social, intellectual, and spiritual well being. You are fostering skills and creating an environment that will remain with them long after they leave your classroom. Good teachers affect students much more broadly than through their impact on grades and achievement tests. People overwhelmingly say that great teachers help their students achieve their full potential in life.
I am so grateful for all all those memorable experiences I had during my own studies. Brilliant teachers that I encountered left a profound impact on me, inspiring me to the values and principles by which I live today. These teachers were characterized by their:
- devotion to the task of teaching
- eternal positivity
- genuine caring for their students
They created a learning environment where their students could thrive. Christa McAuliffe said it well: "I touch the future. I teach."
May I add one more positive quality I've seen in great teachers? You can understand what they're saying. "A good teacher," wrote Louis Berman, "is a master of simplification and an enemy of simplism."
So ...
- Keep investing in your students' lives.
- Keep inspiring them to go for their dreams.
- Keep being role models, inspirers, influencers. and touchstones in education.
The generation you shape will make a difference.