In this month you and your students will be faced with testing, contests, concerts, and exhaustion. You have done so much to educate, prepare, and most importantly love your students. It might not seem like now, it might not seem like they care, simply because it is a fight to get them do what you want them to do. But they care.
When you have passed out your last pencil in your extra pencil stash, when you have used your last box of tissues, when you have gone through hours of test prep with your students, when you have graded what seems like 24 hours of AP essays, when you have gone on a marathon IEP writing session, when you have felt the pressure to do more with less, when you have just had to place a kid on suspension, when you have had to tell teachers they don't have a job next school year, when you have had to give the bad news about budgets, when it seems like you have failed, just remember this one thing. This one very important thing.
You are changing the world.
It just takes one kid. You change one kid's life, you change their world. You are making the biggest difference even when it doesn't seem like it is happening. No matter what is thrown at you. No matter the disappointment, the hurt, the heartbreak, the discouragement, you are changing the world. We live in a time where educators are under the biggest pressure and frankly are so disrespected, I understand the hurt and heartbreak that you feel right now. Because I'm an educator too.
My heart hurts and it breaks. It breaks for my students, my school district, this state that I love, and this profession that I love so very much. I am tired. I am beat up. I am discouraged. However today I was reminded that I change the world.
When a choral group that I teach finally gets that difficult passage we have been working on for weeks, when a student gets accepted into a music camp, when they smile and tell me that choir is their favorite part of their day. It seems small, but those little things make everything worth it.
I know that you are broken, worn out, tired, and ready to give up. But don't stop. Keep going. Keep running. Keep pushing to better yourself and to better your students. They will never remember question seventeen on their state testing, but what they will remember is you. They will remember the lessons you taught them and how you loved them.
It will be okay. Go and change the world.
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