20 years down the road...

Can you imagine that in 20 years, you will be sitting at your computer reflecting on all the times you put into your classroom? 20 years in a classroom...in any place...seems like a long time. Do you know how many students you will have in 20 years of teaching? Do you think it is important to make a connection with each of these students throughout the time spent in your classroom? Well, I do. I know that after 20 years of teaching, i will be able to look back and reflect on the fact that i touched almost 2000 students lives. I think this will be an amazing feeling. For a feeling like this, do you really think it will be easy? No- it will not be easy. In fact, the first 5 years are going to be the hardest, but we must return to the classroom every day, year after year, because we have students lives to affect. My favorite teacher in high school (one who i still talk to every week) was in the classroom for 30 years before i had her as a teacher and she still seemed enthusiastic about her material every day. Yes, she has probably been teaching the same information year after year for the past however many years, but she still loved it and still did it every day. Now that she is retired, she is back in the classroom subbing at least 3 days a week because she loves it so much. I hope that in 20 or 30 years i will be as excited about teaching. I know that seems like a long way away-- but i am excited for that feeling!