TEACH: How Inspiring Teachers Make A Difference

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This post is brought to your by Participant Media.

It seems that the focus on our school systems today is on how bad they are.  There is so much emphasis on standardized testing, and we think that if kids don’t score a certain way then the schools and the teachers are bad.  Honestly you don’t want to get me on the topic of standardized testing because I’ll go off on a tangent and you’ll get quite an ear full.  What makes me sad is that the great teachers that are out there aren’t being recognized.  There are teachers every day that spend hours making amazing lesson plans, and they give everything to their students, and they instill in their students a love of learning and their students do amazing things.

I was blessed to have such a teacher.  When I was in 5th grade I had a wonderful teacher named Ms. Watson.  She was one of those teachers that made learning fun, and we all loved her.  She loved us as well, and she let those of us that wanted to help her all the time.  Before and after school, and during recess, she would let us help her.  I’ll never forget about how she had to have a Diet Coke and when we were helping her she would let us go with her to the teacher’s lounge to get one, and she would buy us a drink as well.  She gave us her all even though that year was an emotional roller coaster for her.  While we had her she got engaged and eloped.  During her engagement her fiance found out that he had back cancer, so they got married quickly to spend as much time together as possible.  No matter what was happening in her personal life her teaching never changed and I thrived in her class, and I know my classmates did as well.

As wonderful as she was when I was in elementary school, it was when I was in high school that she made the biggest impact on my life.  When I was a senior I was able to participate in a tutoring program where I got to work with a teacher of my choice (guess who?) for my first two school hours every day.  I learned a lot about teaching that year.  For me it was more like a pre-student teaching position.  In fact I learned a lot more that year than I learned from most of my pre-student teaching in college.  It was truly amazing and that experience was one of the reason I went into teaching myself.

The impact of teachers on their student’s lives is huge.  There are lots of amazing teachers out there making an impact every day.  These inspiring teachers do amazing things for their students, and it is finally time for people to see that.   A new two hour documentary premiering on CBS on September 6th, and on Pivot on September 14th, is giving the world a peak at some of those amazing teachers.  The documentary is called TEACH and it asks the important question, ” What does it take to be a great teacher today?”  As an educator myself I can tell you that it takes a lot.  Anyone that says that teachers have it easy and that they get three months off a year have no clue what good teachers really do.  I hope that this documentary opens up the eyes of many.

Want to see what great things this documentary has in store?  Watch the clip below, and for more information check out the Take Part TEACH website.  I for one can’t wait to see it!