Celebrating Excellence in Education: Take Time on Teacher’s Day to Say Thank You

All the qualities that I used to love in my teachers are what my husband – a 21-year veteran business teacher – possesses. I know you’re going to think I’m biased, and sure, I am. But honestly, he’s the type of teacher I wish I had all the time.?

He also doesn’t tolerate the things I found that made me uncomfortable, unsure, unconfident, and unsafe. Sometimes, that was all I wanted in a teacher—to make me feel psychologically safe enough to be in the classroom.

Do you know his secret? It’s pretty simple and might differ from what you expect.

What Great Teachers Know

Mark wants his students to want to be in his classroom.

Here’s his teaching philosophy in a nutshell:

If students show up and want to be there, they can learn.

And why? Because he had such an awful school experience.?

• He was always the new kid.
• Sometimes, he’d go to school after some tough family dynamics the night before.
• Money was tight.
• He was an average student.
• He wasn’t particularly athletic.
• He was shy.
• He would rather be outdoors on his bike than staring at the chalkboard inside.

In other words, he wasn’t a model student. And it wasn’t his fault.

Sometimes, his teachers thought he wasn’t smart enough, and others said he wasn’t motivated. Being a shy new kid trying to keep his head down can be misunderstood.?

I’ve asked my husband if he had a few teachers who stood out for him. Who made you feel great? Who helped you with difficult transitions? Who could pick up on some tough stuff happening at home and try to make things easier for you?

There may have been some, but one stands out.?

The Teacher Who Made All the Difference

By the time Mark hit high school, he took any hands-on courses he could. Woodworking, auto shop, electrical, and a whole semester of the outdoors program, where you can learn out in nature, portaging, making fires, cooking, dehydrating food, sleeping under the stars, reflecting on the power of independence, planning, organization, and working as a team.?

This last program and the fantastic teacher who led it taught him the most potent and profound lessons of his entire educational experience. Yet, if you had to put them in academic terms, it would be hard to write them down, as they were ubiquitous and practical. Few of these could have quickly been learned in a classroom, yet all were key to life success.

His teacher created a magical, motivating, and self-sufficient learning experience for some students who may have considered themselves misfits. He was able to fit beautifully into this outward-bound classroom, where learning didn’t feel hard, and he didn’t need to prove himself to anyone, including the teacher; survival was the ultimate grader, and his teacher just believed in his students that they would be safe, diligent, and determined young people. And guess what? They worked hard to prove him right.?

I wish I could say that it led to a fairytale next chapter. The truth is, Mark couldn’t wait to get out of school.

How To Keep Going

If you had asked him if he would ever go to university, he would’ve told you flat-out no. In his mind, he wasn’t smart enough. He had zero desire to spend that much time in school. And what would you do for a career?

He went to college in the field that made sense—hotel, restaurant, and resort management—because every job he had ever had was in hospitality, and he was good at the work. He enjoyed the program’s practicality, had fun doing tableside dining in various 5-star restaurants across the country, and looked pretty swell in a tux at the host station.

Sadly, he didn’t work for many great leaders – the kinds I speak for. He didn’t have a “you” that valued him.?

It’s about this time in his life when he was in his mid-twenties when I met Mark. We worked for, no joke, Satan’s mother (she would regularly tear a strip off of you in front of the whole dining room just for kicks). He wanted to do something different, but what?

• Me: “What do you love most about your job and those that came before?”
• Mark: “Training people. Mentoring new staff. Teaching how to give great tableside service. Anytime I help people learn something they didn’t know before.”
• Me: “It seems you like teaching. Why don’t you go back to become a teacher.”

Denial, denial, denial. Under no uncertain terms was he ever going to consider being a teacher! He didn’t “get” teachers. He didn’t like classrooms. He couldn’t wait to get out of high school. No, no, no, no, no (x100).

Okay then….

So we compromised. He’d return to school – university this time – and?figure out “what’s next” by leveraging a business degree. I’d pick the same school because every school offers psychology courses. So he started in business marketing. He liked marketing; it interested him. Well, that’s a good start.

Oh man, it was hard. First-year Calculus, when you hadn’t stepped foot into a math class in ten years, was a pretty big adjustment, but he got through it. (We followed the AA mantra “one day at a time” in those early days.)

To his utter surprise (and not at all mine), four years later, he graduated with his honours BBA and was the first in his family to graduate college and the first with a university degree. But, “That’s it,” he told me.

No problem, babe. I’ll head to grad school. You bring home the vegan bacon. It’s all good.

Except he was itchy for something else. You see, he was resisting his path.

My Husband: The Accidental Teacher

Mark was still holding on to the fact that he was the guy who couldn’t wait to run out of the doors at the end of each school year and who counted down the credits (and then the days) to graduation. He told himself, “You will never have to be back here.” Years later, he just couldn’t wrap his head around being in a high school by choice.

And yet, I tell you, all of those good and not-so-good experiences made him the fantastic teacher he is today.?

Here was his lightbulb moment: I could be the teacher I always needed in school.

As he applied to teachers college, he had this running loop of reflection:

• What could I do to improve the experience for my students, particularly for “the misfits” like I always felt I was?
• How could I be there for those students who had some tough stuff happening at home like I did?
• How could I believe in the kids who didn’t think they were smart because they didn’t fit the academic model?
• How could I provide a cushion for students below the poverty line? (Not so fun, fact: Mark and his brother had to put their feet in bread bags so that by the time they got to school, their feet wouldn’t be soaking wet from the holes. Mark never forgot this experience and has been known to stop at the local thrift shop on the way home to get some boots for kids who didn’t have dry ones.)

“What if I could teach to reach those kids?”

And that’s what he did for the first nine years, working with at-risk kids and the last 12 in a traditional high school. He has taught kids with empty bellies, who were couch surfing and fearful of authority figures. He’s taught students who were convicted of committing crimes, so they had to attend school with a parole officer in tow. He’s taught students who were such talented musicians, artists, and creatives but didn’t think they were “real” talents (we have an incredible drawing of our kids by one of those students…she used the money to pay rent.) He’s taught students who became doctors, dentists, lawyers, and, yes, even one professional speaker (LOL). They’re all success stories to Mark because every one of them got themselves to school and was brave enough to try to learn.

Mark sees kids as brave as they all have to face painful, challenging, and stressful times in their formative years. He wants his classroom and their time with him to be “less angsty.”?

Thank goodness he found his path, even if it was winding.

Thank You, Teachers

Click on the image below to download your copy and thank a teacher today!

Not all teachers feel they were “born” educators, exude extroversion and are 100% at ease at the front of the room. Just like for their students, for some, it’s tough to be there some days. They need to hear “we appreciate you” as much as anyone else does.

When teachers feel valued, creating learning spaces with abundant appreciation is easier. It creates ripples of kindness, compassion and curiosity.

When students feel seen, heard, and valued by their teachers, they are likelier to see, hear, and value greatness within themselves and their fellow students. They’re also more able to learn.

For all of the teachers out there who teach wacky things, for all of the teachers who believe the best in their students before they prove them right, for all of the teachers who make their classrooms enjoyable so that learning can occur, THANK YOU !

Happy Teacher’s Day this October 5th and the other 364 days of the year!

Check out these past blog posts for more great ideas on teaching:

• It’s Time to Celebrate The Great Teachers Who Help Mold Our Future Leaders
• Making a Difference: Can You See the Impact that You Have?
• Creating the Opportunity to Teach Greatness: A Story From the Home Front…

Disclaimer/Humble Brag Moment: 100% of this content was human-generated (by us folks here at Greatness Magnified). We are committed to authorship integrity and will inform you what percent, if any, is AI-generated.