Dear Educational Rockstar, 

I know right now that is far from how you feel. 

I know because I am one of you. 

You wake up every morning and go forward to educate and love little minds and hearts no matter how big the problems of your personal life are. You learn to become a great actress or actor. 

Your hearts breaks at the child that can’t afford lunch. The child that comes in with dirty clothes and matted hair and smells a little funny. The child whose maturity you know comes from being more of an adult that a kid in the home. Those children that are so sweet, innocent and lovable. All through it you try to keep a smile.

At your desk in the classroom during conference you look upon the emptiness and think “What am I really doing here that is lasting?” -the clutter of the week lining your counters and broken pencils littering the floor.

You sit in the silence of your living room with a glass of wine and a bowl of ice cream watching The Office in your PJs on a Friday night when everyone else has the energy to actually do things and wonder to yourself, “Am I really making a difference? They still have to go back home when I am done. They still don’t seem to understand. They still can’t seem to behave…”

May I tell you before we go any further…

You are loved. 
You are valuable. 
You are useful. 

Sometimes we don’t see the fruit of our labor until later, and sometimes we see the fruits of our labor in unexpected ways. 

There have been many days when in the whirlwind of my emotions my students never cease to make me laugh or smile with a little remark or a precious hug.

And there have been days when I can’t deal. 

Somedays you wonder why other schools don’t break your door to hire you. Somedays you hide behind your desk during conference and cry. 

Somedays you can’t imagine doing anything else. Somedays you wonder why you haven’t become a professional cuddler or dog walker to get paid as much as you do now.

I know that no matter what my day holds, in my classroom these are my babies and I have a job to do. I have hugs and fist pumps to give each morning and my job is more than reading a book- my job is reading a soul. My job is showing these precious souls that someone loves and cares for them. 

Dear Tired Teacher, 

You are doing better than you think. 

Keep moving forward. 

Keep your head up. 

You are loved.
You are valuable. 
You are useful.

Signed, 

One of You