Like any profession there are the good guys and the bad guys (sorry Frank, no pun intended).

I've seen teachers that do it because they love it and it shows....and I've seen teachers that suck because they despise what they do. Those are the ones that need to find another vocation and leave...immediately if not sooner.

But I will go on record as saying that there were 3 teachers that helped mold me at a really tough period of my life.....were it not for their wisdom and guidance I probably would have taken a different and less respectable road in life.

Thank you Coach Michael, Coach Bush and Coach Bonuchi....

When the alternative is ending up well done, I sure as hell would have done the same thing. Getting hit with a blast wave will pump up the adrenaline faster than getting shot at.

As a teacher, thanks for saying that. I teach in a very supportive district, but I've had people, friends and relatives, make the old jokes and it gets old. I'm definitely not in it for the money, I do it because I love helping kids to become responsible independent thinkers. I honestly feel love for the kids I have in class, I miss them when they leave me for the next grade, and it makes my week when one or two of them come back to visit.

I was inspired to be a teacher by 2 I had in high school. My Anatomy and Physiology teacher my senior year had so much passion for his subject and just thought it was so cool that he got to show it off to us, I was amazed by him. It didn't hurt that I loved the subject too.

The other teacher was an algebra teacher I had when I first moved to PA from Colorado. It was the 4th move for my family in a little less than 5 years. She was known as a ball buster who would call you out if you didn't know your stuff and demanded perfection. One day after school she was helping me get caught up to where they were when I moved there, I broke down, I think because of the stress of moving so much had finally caught up with me. She was the nicest, most sincerely compassionate person I've ever been around in that moment. She didn't let me off the hook in class because of that, but my perspective of her was so different from my classmates that I requested to have her the next year too.

I'm 10 1/2 years into my career. If I can have an affect on one kid like these two mentors had on me, I'll consider it all a success.

Yep, one guy died in the initial blast. I was asleep. It was a rush I'll never forget. That was my last day working the oil rigs. Figured I couldnt spend the good money I was making if I was dead.

I can't even begin to imagine that. I didn't sleep both nights after firefights in the sandbox. Not that I am disagreeing mind you.

I'll chime in and say that I appreciate the teachers in my life, including my mom who taught in a public school for 17 years and served as a sub for another 8.

I had a few bad apples through my time, but appreciate all of those who poured their lives into mine. So to all of you on here who teach, thank you.

That's the thing, contract wise, yes it's 2/3rds out of the year. However, my wife was an elementary teacher for 3 years and typically worked 7:30-9 5 days a week and then would do about 5 hours of prep on Sunday.

In the summer, she was gone for professional development roughly 5 weeks of her 9 weeks "off"

She made 45,000 in her 3rd year in one of the most expensive parts of the country.

It's not a teach out of the textbook job anymore. It's making curriculum accessible to every student in the room, it's adapting to everyone's needs, it's incorporating mass amounts of technology into every lesson, it's being a parent/role model/mediator/counselor every single minute you're in the classroom.

I haven't seen a pay increase in 3 years, and this year I had the misfortune of getting furloughed in a district that I just gained tenure from. The hardest part of losing my job in the high school was that I wouldn't get to see the kids I started with 3 years ago graduate this year. I worked insanely hard in getting some kids that were in really bad places to find the value of every day and to work hard to get what they want. I had internships in place for some that the new teacher didn't bother to follow up on.

Most of those opportunities were created after my contracted time. It was me going into the community and advocating for my students.

It's a grueling job some days. But it's rewarding on just about all of them.

I was joking in my earlier post. I remember the epic thread a year or two back where there was a big argument about the 180 days thing.

My 12th-grade calculus and physics teacher really impressed me, in part because he was the first adult who really treated me like an adult. I also remember appreciating the fact that, on the first day of class he went around and talked to each student individually and asked us if we were working, and how many hours. I was the only kid in that peer group that consistently worked a lot, and it was nice to have him recognize that.

Another teacher that really impressed me was my high school band teacher, who really liked what he was doing. I'm Facebook friends with him today 30 years later, and he's proof that you can enjoy your work for an entire career.

And finally, my second-grade teacher was a cute young redhead that I liked more than a seven year-old should. I actually sent her an e-mail a couple of years ago, not to confess my crush but just to say hi and let her know that I enjoyed being her student. She sent a nice letter back and included photographs that she had taken in her classroom that year that included me. It turned out that it had only been her second year of teaching, so she remembered it well.

Let me tell you about my experience with teachers. In 6th grade I was blessed with a great one. She loved my writing and despite being a very unpopular kid in school she offered me up for a special creative writing class. I got in there and mingled upon jocks, the popular and the unpopular. it changed my view on my abilities but I still was so unsure of myself.

The next year I had an English teacher who demanded we participate in class and made it mandatory that we entered our writing in a local juco's literary review. The 3rd day of class, sitting silent as a stump, she called me into the hall. I was astonished and amazed. I had done nothing wrong.
When I got there, she said (and I will never forget this), " do you think I am better than you?" Of course I said yes, after all she was the teacher. Then she proceeded to tell me that her words were formed by her brain just as my words were formed by mine. She would make me express myself, hell or high water, and I'd best take the easy way out and jump in or she would make it her sole purpose to include me if that meant me giving a report every day at the beginning of class. Initially the fear of the worst prompted me. Eventually the confidence of what I am motivated me.

To say a teacher isn't worth anything is a shame in my mind. They shape the most important aspect of our world--Our future.

I get the chills watching that. I have been through 3 fires and one decent size explosion at various refineries. You can bet that every time I enter the process at a refinery, I look around for different exit strategies.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I'm inside a gas plant everyday. I do various jobs inside including working with welders. When working with a welder inside a gas plant you can believe that I'm on my "A" game lol. You won't put run these explosions and that's why I'm always looking for exits, just like you mentioned.

Teachers are teachers they should be remember as people and not the brave teacher(s). I only say this because any right human being would protect an innocent child. Remember them as a person and not some teacher. Sorry for bitching BRC

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

This is why I am going to grad school while I do an EPP to get certified to teach. Also, Nurses shouldn't be allowed to have facebooks.

What the hell are you going to teach?

Stupidity as an art form?

You shouldn't have an account here.