“For this year, I am thankful for you. I am thankful your in my life. You are a very important person to me. You are family. Therefore I love you.”

I’m not sure many people realize what I do. When I say I’m a teacher I think people assume that I stand in front of a classroom and somehow impart knowledge. But no.

I’m a hero.

I love my students. I LOVE them. If you follow the teaching part of my blog you will hear endless stories about how much I love them. It’s not always easy to love them. The students I teach come from very challenging backgrounds. They deal with issues that you and I could never, ever imagine. Because of the challenges of poverty, my students are behind: academically, socially, and emotionally. Many, many cannot read. Many cannot regulate emotions. Many cannot focus. So many cannots.

Luckily I grew up in poverty. I lived through some cannots of my own. And I don’t give up easily. I get what it’s like to be behind and what it feels like to feel lacking. I remember longing for my teachers to notice me, like me, support me. But because I was scrappy, and behind, and mouthy, I wasn’t a particular favorite. Now that I am a teacher, I just try to love them up. I love past the cannots and hasn’ts and lacking.

Today, that made me a hero.