Thoughts for Today

May has brought with it many changes... and I am a creature of habit who really doesn't appreciate change. And yet, I know that in order to grow there must be changes in my life. Have the changes been destructive? No. Have they caused undo pain? Only to my inner being. And so, I will adapt to the will of others, even though I've done a lot of grumbling along the way. 

Now summer looms before me, and I say goodbye to a most difficult year. There have been good things within the realm of despair, but the good has only shown it's face far and few times in between the knock down, drag around way I've felt throughout this year.

Now for the first time in a dozen years or so, I am taking off for the precious few weeks we used to call summer vacation. During this time I plan to try and rejuvenate my inner soul, rest from the harsh realities of being torn down, and prepare myself for a new year. 

Throughout my teaching career I have met some extraordinary people. People who's memories are deeply engrained within me. People I have taught, but whom have also taught me. They've taught me how to be a better teacher, how to laugh at my own mistakes, and how to empathize with the many plights we've found ourselves in.

And so to all of my fellow teachers, I dedicate these "Thoughts for Today" to you...

• The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth."  ~Dan Rather

• A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others.  ~Author Unknown

• If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job.  ~Donald D. Quinn

• In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work.  It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.  ~Jacques Barzun

• The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "apparently ordinary" people to unusual effort.  The tough problem is not in identifying winners:  it is in making winners out of ordinary people.  ~K. Patricia Cross

• A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.  ~Henry Adams

• One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.  The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.  ~Carl Jung 

Blessing always, 
Susan