Breathe.

Ms. Harvetta Bradney was my Kindergarten teacher. She was amazing. Even at forty-one years old, I can still see her classroom, our nap mats, and a welcoming smile for all of her students. I was scared to go to Kindergarten, but Ms. Bradney made school a place I wanted to be. Many years after Kindergarten, I taught alongside Ms. Bradney. I was teaching 5th grade, and she came in as a long-term substitute. I still found myself in awe of her, even at a brash twenty-four years old. She loved and taught those 5th graders just like she had loved and taught me all those years ago. She told me at the end of that year what a joy it was to teach with one of her former students. I certainly count it as a blessing.

 

Ms. Ruby Brown taught 3rd grade her entire career. Spanning over four decades, she loved, taught, and made children feel as safe and welcome as she could. I did not have Ms. Brown as a teacher, but I remember being in 3rd grade and hearing about how mean she was from my best friend Chris, though his opinion was a bit skewed by his horrible behavior and lack of focus. Later on, I served with AmeriCorps for two years in High School and College, and Ms. Brown was the coordinator. During that time, she took a seventeen-year-old boy and taught him how to be a teacher’s aide. A few years later, when my year of student teaching came up, there was only one person that I wanted to learn under: Ms. Brown. I spent the year learning more from her than I had learned in any of my college classes. I came out of that year ready to be a teacher because Ms. Brown made sure of it. She taught me as if I was her son, and I have never stopped loving her because of it.

 

I am so very thankful that I have had the opportunity to tell both of these ladies the amazing impact they have had on my life, and I continue to tell them every opportunity I get because they mean so much to me. They have impacted my life not just as teachers but as people who helped shape me into the person I am today.

 

I bet it does not take you that long to think of the educators who really stood out to you for some reason. Perhaps they broke down walls to help you learn something that you had never been able to grasp before. Maybe they were kind to you when there was not a lot of kindness in your world. Maybe they taught you to believe in yourself at the exact moment in your life that you needed that ability.

 

Teachers are amazing people. The more educators I meet, the more I am convinced of that. Not only do teachers try their best to educate children every day, but they do this in spite of changes in curricula, standards, and administrators. They do this through personal struggles most of us will never know about. For instance, in later years, I learned that Ms. Bradney was able to be an amazing teacher while caring for her mother and disabled brother at home. I also learned that Ms. Brown faced difficulties as a black woman in southeastern Arkansas that I could never comprehend. And yet, they taught with love and compassion. Year after year, they gave everything they had to every class they taught despite students’ differences in socioeconomic status, race, or ability. Their teaching even went well beyond the classroom. They checked in on kids, kept up with kids, and helped them long after they moved on to other classrooms.

 

I know you do much of the same. Whether this year was your first year or your fortieth, I know you loved those kids when you were tired, sick, and had things going on in your life that no one ever knew about. The perseverance of the educator is a wonderful thing to behold.

 

As the year draws to a close, don’t forget to take a moment and breathe before the busyness of summer starts. Take a few moments before you begin planning for next year or coming to Region 7 for a workshop (to gain even more amazing tools as a teacher 😊). Take time to breathe and reflect on the good you have done this year.  

You have made an impact. You have reached students in ways you may never know. You have taught a student a skill that they will need again and again in their life. You have smiled at a student and been the first time an adult had smiled at them that entire morning. You have loved and cared about students who do not experience love outside of your classroom. You have helped a colleague through rough days, and you have encouraged colleagues to keep fighting the fight. You have found ways to teach despite setbacks, obstacles, and unforeseen problems. You have gotten up in the morning to go and do your job, while far “stronger” people would have stayed in bed.

You are a teacher, and that is what teachers do.

I have no doubt that you have impacted someone this year. I have no doubt that one day, someone will look back and remember that you were the teacher who changed their life.

The school year is finished. The halls are quiet. The bulletin boards are coming down. The tests are over, and the field trips have been taken. No one knows what the next year will bring,  but right now, you can breathe and look back on the good you have done.