Before School Starts Up Again...

Before School Starts Up Again...

I want to make sure I take back with me a sense of optimism about the upcoming year. I know it's gonna be more challenging in many ways due to these absolutely BONKER budget cuts. However, just because we have less money to spend on our kids than ever (at least as long as I've been a teacher) does not mean that we automatically have to provide less of an education to our kids than ever.

And I believe they way to ensure that this does not happens begins with my own mindset.

My classes will be big, my resources will be diminished, and my colleagues most certainly can't be expected to enter the year with the same hopeful disposition I am working to create for myself right now.

And why am I doing so? Because the kids deserve it!

But let's be honest, if we could control our fellow peers on staff, we'd be more than the mere miracle workers we already are charged with being... we'd be absolutely LEGENDARY WIZARDS! (Alas, my magic wand just does not seem to run that deep with powers.)

And so, while I begin to shop at Target, the 99 cent store, Staples, Office Depot and so on, clipping coupons, hunting for deals, knowing that buying stuff like pens, dry erase markers, reams of paper, band-aids, tissues, hand sanitizer, and so on, I must remember that the most important thing I need to pack in order to prepare for next year is my attitude.

Cause if I don't put a good one in my teaching bag right from Day 1, it's gonna be a long, hard year. That table was set months and months ago.

Sometimes, the most important school supplies are the ones that can't be purchased.

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Comment by ConorK on August 11, 2009 at 2:00am: Very well said Alan. It is true that because of recession, many students couldn’t afford to buy good school materials/supplies. But I do believe that it is not these school supplies make our students knowledgeable but because of the teachers who taught their students with good values and facts that are worth treasuring. No cash advance that will compare the compassion of teachers/professors who teaches their students what is life outside the 4-corners of the classroom. That is why teachers should be consider HEROES, for their service they’ve rendered to us. Without them there will be no successful careers, like doctors, businessman, engineers, architects, IT profession and teachers as well and many more.