Relax and Enjoy!
Relax and Enjoy!
One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in the bank, nor what my clothes looked like.
One hundred from now it will not matter what kind of school I attended, what kind of typewriter I used, how large or small my church, but the world may be a little better, because...
I was important in the life of a child. --Anonymous
It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber. --WILPF
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. --Mahatma Gandhi
And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything you risk even more. --Erica Jong
That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all you life, but in a new way. --Doris Lessong
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? --Mary Oliver
If I were to begin my life again, I should want it as it were. I would only open my eyes a little more. --Jules Renard
You must do the thing you think you cannot do. --Eleanor Roosevelt
The hardest battle is to be nobody but yourself in a world that is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else. --E.E. Cummings
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. --Unknown
Progress always involves risk. You can't steal second base with one foot on first. --Unknown
It is a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept nothing but the best, you very often get it. --Somerset Maugham
I am only one; but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but I can still do something. I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. --Unknown
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now. --Goethe
There is NO research to support the following model of teaching: Assign chapters to read, Answer the questions at the end of the chapters, Take notes on a lecture, Watch a movie, Take a test. --Unknown
Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression. --Haim Ginott
Life is not a destination. Life is a journey. As long as you continue the journey, you will always be a success. --Albert Camus
I am not a teacher, but an awakener. --Robert Frost
My teacher thought I was smarter than I was; so I was. --six year old student
To be successful is to achieve an objective. But, to be a success is always to have yet another objective in mind after you've achieved the last one. --Unknown
Yeah, to be 10 years younger andk know what I know now... --San Jose News, 12/89
Results and Responsibilities-NOT excuses. --Unknown
A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every passerby leaves a mark. --Chinese Proverb
You are the god of the young, the very young
You are th guardian of a million dreams
Your every smile or frown
can heal or pierce the heart
You are a hundred lives, a thousand lives.
Yours the pride of loving them
And the sorrow too.
Your patient work, your touch
Make you the goals of hope
Who fill their souls with dreams
To make those dreams come true.
by Ronald Reagan
Only the Brave Should Teach
My Impact as a Teacher
Nike Ad It's not about your shoes or your hair In fact, it's not about grades, money, Life just isn't about that. But life is about who you love and who you hurt. It's about what you say and what you mean. These choices are what life's about.
A Teacher's Poem
I am a New York City Public High School Teacher.
Do not look surprised.
Do not feel sorry for me.
Do not pity me.
Do not offer me your condolences.
Do not pat me on the back, shake my hand,
Cross your elf or speak of my bravery.
Do not ask me if I receive combat pay
or wear a bulletproof vest.
Do not aske me when I plan to get a real job,
Apply to law school,
Or what my first career choice was.
Do not assume my head is in the clouds
And I have no grasp on reality.
Do not sympathize, emphasize,
Or tell me about the job opening in your cousin's business.
Do not suggest I join the Peace Corps.
Do not ask if my parents were teachers.
Do not ask if my parents were hippies.
Do not assume I am a saint, naive, innocent,
Searching for my childhood,
Living for the summers off,
Home by 2:15,
Use a red pen,
Play the Lotto,
Wish for the glory days of the past
Or would rather work in the suburbs, where I could REALLY teach.
I am a New York City Public high school teacher.
Ask me why I chose to be a teacher.
Ask me if my students have books, supplies, and chairs.
Ask me my opinion of Guiliani, Pataki, and Crew.
Reminisce with me about your favorite teachers.
Share with me the qualities that made them admirable.
Tell me about your favorite projects and field trips.
Ask me what my students are working on now.
Gasp when I say how many students are in each of my classes.
Gasp when I say how many I see in a week.
Cry with me about Marc sleeping in the subway,
Simone losing her father,
Maria thinking she's pregnant,
And Rick dropping out of school.
Laugh with me about Kenny (caught in the act) insisting it was the "Stalin in him,"
My classroom being toilet papered,
And the Great All-Out Classroom Trash Throwing War of '94
(fought just to get Sharon to smile on the last day of school).
Marvel with me over my students' intelligience
Achievements, diligence, creativity, and strength.
Cheer with me as they write their college essays and take the SAT's.
Soar with me as they get their college acceptance letters.
Ask me how to create a scholarship,
Ask me how to volunteer,
Ask me about the many qualities needed to become
A New York City publice high school teacher.
--by Lisa Lauritzen, in the New York Times
Only the brave. Only the brave should teach.
Only those who love the young should teach.
Teaching is a vocation.
It is as sacred as the priesthood; as innate a desire, as inescapable as the genius which compels a great artist.
If he has not the concern for humanity,
the love of living creatures,
the vision of the priest and the artist,
he must not teach.
by Pearl Buck
I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.
by Haim Ginott
Life isn't just about keeping score.
It's not about how many people call you
And it's not about who you've dated or haven't dated at all.
It isn't about who you've kissed,
What sport you play,
Or which guy or girl likes you.
Or the color of your skin,
Or where you live or go to school.
Clothes, or colleges that accept you or not.
Life isn't about if you have lots of friends or if you are alone,
And it's not about how accepted or unaccepted you are.
It's about how you feel about yourself.
It's about trust, happiness, and compassion.
It's about avoiding jealousy, overcoming ignorance
And builidng confidence.
It's about seeing people for who they are and not what they have.
Most of all it is about choosing to use your life
In a way that could never have been achieved otherwise.