As I bring my my first week of school to a close, I begin to think about my colleagues and my friends that are in the education field. Whether it is a high school teacher, elementary teacher, principal, college professor, or literacy coach, I know everyone of us has been working extremely hard this week and in the previous weeks, for those who have already been back at it for some time.

I really started thinking hard about the time and effort teachers spend getting their classrooms ready, creating lesson plans based on the curriculum that they are teaching, and the hours of professional development they have participated in. I wanted to give my colleague a really big hug today after she made a comment about how she reached 9:00p.m. the night before and she still wasn’t done preparing for the next day’s lesson. She then proceeded to look over at her counter and saw she still needed to take care of a household chore and she almost began to cry. Why did she feel like crying? It’s simple, she felt she was neglecting her family because of all of the work she still had to do for school and she was exhausted. Some might say, to stop working and take a break. That is easy for someone to say that may not be in education. You see, we care! We care about the children in our classroom first and foremost and we care about our jobs. It is evident that education is suffering all over. A lot of teachers and programs have been cut. Those of us that are lucky enough to have our jobs still care about what we are doing in our classroom and we will do what it takes to make it work. As I sit here writing now and knowing I have been up until at least 11:00 every night, I applaud you all for your efforts and your sacrifices.

Those of you who may not be in the education field, I want you to know that educators are hustling and bustling and breaking their backs to bring education to generations of children. Working so hard that family time is being sacrificed. A price we are all willing to pay because we love our jobs and want to see kids be successful in school and in life. For some teachers, they hope they can simply be a positive role model for children who may not have one.

So, I applaud all of you who are connected to education in some fashion. Continue to work hard and make the difference that means so much to kids. Eventually someone will stand up and take notice.

Cheers!