Whenever I feel no one likes me as a teacher....

then the Lord quickly gives me more than enough evidence to the contrary. When your bosses are many--principal, asst. principals, specialists, every parent, and every child...all it takes is one crazy, bully of a parent or administrator to make me feel despondent.

One year it was my principal. She was on my case constantly. I felt like I wanted to quit in the middle of the year. I was going to quit in the middle of the day one day, and on the way to my principal's office, I walked by my mail box. There was a wooden United States puzzle and a large US map on  a blanket sticking out. The accompanying note from a parent told me how much of a difference I had made in her son's life (he was in middle school then) and she wanted me to have those maps because she knew I would use them. How timely! I took them to my room and cried. I did not resign.

Sometimes, it has been science tools and rocks left from parents of former students. I received a $56 rock collection from a parent of a former student. I met a high school junior who said I am a legend in high school. They talk about me all the time, he said. Last year,  senior came by to take his picture with me...his favorite teacher. Sometimes, it is just that a parent talks about me on Facebook, recalling how much their child liked me. You would think that I shouldn't need that, but with all the negativity of my job, I do.

A recent incident was from parents who were angry about their son being bullied all year. Well, he wasn't bullied at all. In fact, his behavior was so bad that he was the one that hurt others, but the parents wouldn't believe that at all and kept threatening and pointing fingers at me and my partner...cussing us out. After 2 hours of that, I was shaking. The weekend was ruined. I, again felt down. Then, the next week there was a faculty meeting reviewing a student session where a student was randomly selected from every class and questioned about their learning. This was recorded and some of the best answers were read aloud at the meeting. Several of the students mentioned my name with the good things they remembered...but the one that meant the most was the 4th grade student that went on and on about how I made learning exciting because I taught students things that weren't for a test; I taught them extra things that they wanted to know or would help them in their future. If that is all anyone said about me as a teacher, that is what I have always wanted to do in my classes. Once again, I thanked Heavenly Father for the timing and that I have had that impact on His children.