A Standing Ovation for Educators

This past week has been truly eye opening. As someone who works full-time in a public school system, I didn’t have any intention of talking about my book at work. I didn’t expect anyone I worked with to acknowledge it either. Because when we are at work, we are about making sure we are doing great things for the learners we serve. That’s what we are there to do.

When a teacher asked me to stop by her room on a PD day, I was excited to see her. She is a bright light to so many of us and any moments I get to share with her always feel special. Oddly, her door was closed and locked when I arrived at the schedule time. Very unlike her. Hmmm, I thought. Did I get the time wrong? Is this a bad time?

Another teacher approached at the same time also needing to get into the classroom for the meeting, so I thought ok, good. Maybe the door is just accidentally closed.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the room, music started to play and teachers from her department were clapping, cheering for me, and smiling. I was overcome with emotion.

Because here is the thing, that says so much more about them than it does about me. It is magical that my colleagues cheer for each other so wholeheartedly and are so wholeheartedly happy for other educators, they deliver standing ovations.

That.

Is.

Beautiful.

That – is the legacy of teachers. As I mention in my book, Legacy of Learning: Teaching for Lasting Impact, “We are responsible for every child in our school, not just the ones in our classroom. So, when you champion another teacher and make them feel like they can bloom into their best teacher self, you are having a positive impact on more kids. And isn’t that what we all went into education to do?”

I wish every teacher could feel how I felt in that moment. I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from the book, Wonder, “I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives.”

But especially hard working educators. Because they are quite literally changing the world through others every single day, and I think that is a beautiful legacy of learning.