Lend me your ears

Caesar said, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen...."  This morning I'm trying to think about ALL of my students.  I say trying because the numbers are staggering.  I've always told everyone that I just lucked out falling into teaching.  Before I decided on college, I'd always say, "What will I do for a living?  All I know how to do is drive and type."  My mom would laugh at that, but I was serious.  I couldn't draw or paint or sing or dance or build things or anything to earn a living.  I'm not sure when my decision came, but I knew I liked English and what can one do with English but teach (at least that's what I thought, more on that in a later blog).  Forward I went, and in the end, I discovered my passion...English, sure, but way more than that...TEACHING.  I have a teaching blog called "Yoooohoooo, You Who Teach," (Clever, eh?), but I post this in The Bright Spot because I must say THANK YOU to all of you out there:  students, fellow teachers, administrators, parents.  You have made possible the huge BRIGHT SPOT I've lived in all these years.  Oh, I have a life outside the classroom of course, but teaching has colored me bright, has given me insight,  memories, challenges, perspective, a richness I cannot totally explain.  Have I done everything right?  Am I the perfect teacher?  Absolutely not.  As I've always told my students, "No one is perfect.  All you can do is the best you can do and learn."  I'm still teaching, and I'm still learning.  You know, I think I'll post this on the teacher blog too, but it belongs here, here in The Bright Spot.  I hope a whole raft of my "partners in crime" eventually read this and hear my THANK YOU, and yes, I mean ALL of you.  Hugs all around...