Slams, Damns, and Thank You Ma'ams

I find at the beginning of the year all my teacher/non-teacher friends begin posting motivational videos, funny videos, and damning videos about teachers on their facebook pages.  I know they do this so I can see it and they can get a small dig in at me.  I do what I do because I love it.  I hope you will watch the brief videos.  The first video is one I hope you will laugh at.  It is about Things You Will Never Hear A Teacher Say.  Believe me....I have NEVER said this!  I got this from a teacher friend and I laughed out loud.   The teacher across the hall came to see if I was ok. 

This video is the slam.  I hope if you watch this you know that someone who just graduated from high school would not be interviewing in a board room.  I hope you know that.  Please tell me you do.  It made me feel sad.  I don't give all A,B, C answer choices.  My students have to think.  I don't do Think, Pair, Share as a primary method of teachering.  I believe that students need to be able to function in the real world....with out a Think, Pair, Share buddy.

You Have Made A Difference is a motivation video sent by someone who is not a teacher.  As I watched it I felt as if what I do mattered.  You know sometimes teachers don't feel that way.  Sometimes we feel like red-headed step-children and not very loved.  After seeing this I felt like I was special to a student at some time.

This TED video was shared by a friend of mine and it has given me a project for my English 11 class.  It is an exercise in what is important and what you would like to do
"Before You Die." This video really touched me.  It made me cry.  There was no laughing while I watched this....but there was a whole lot of enlightenment going on.  Thinking about death clarifies your life.   I plan on doing this with my students.  I will let you see what they come up with.

The last video I have received hundreds of times as a video and as a story.  I do not know if it is a true story.  I am sure there is some element of truth in it.  All I know about this story is that every time I hear/read it I cry.  You see I had a lot of those same issues as a child in elementary school.  My brother died when I was eight.  My world ceased to exist.  I wanted someone to love me and let me know it was alright.  Now fifty years later, with twenty plus years of teaching under my belt I want to be the kind of person Mrs. Thompson becomes and I hope that by the time I reach my final year there will be students who feel this way about me.  THIS is what teaching is all about.  THIS is what I love about this job.  THIS is what I want to be when I grow up.