For many years I have a kept a worn and faded old manila folder in the bottom drawer of my desk. It is labeled with a Sharpie: Positive Notes for Days I Really Need Them.
This folder is where I stashed the letter from a parent, thanking me for the extra attention to her son. It is where I put the note from a girl in middle school who tried my patience more days than not. I spent many hours with her after school, discussing appropriate behaviors and encouraging her to live up to her potential. A few months after I left that school, she mailed me a letter apologizing for her bad behavior. She told me that she felt safe with me, and that she had learned a lot more from me than she had ever let on. I was flabbergasted.
In my folder, there are also notes from principals, and my positive recommendations. There are a few notes that I jotted down after having a conversation that boosted me just when I needed it. There are funny cards, like the hand drawn one given to me after my sister-in-law died with the heading, “Houston, we have a problem.” He meant well.
Other notes make me cry, like the one from Todd, who even as a twelve-year-old lived life fast and took chances. I remember him, with his sandy hair and his goofy grin. He also tried my patience, but then he would make made me laugh and I never could stay mad at him for long. At the end of the school year, he wrote that he would miss me. I later learned he died young. It broke my heart, but I was not surprised.
There is also a note from another young man who danced with addiction, contemplated suicide and thankfully, didn’t die young. The words, “Thank you for everything,” mean much more to me than the four words he wrote. I know that what they really say is thank you for not giving up on me and not letting me go and believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. I spent sleepless nights over him, and knowing that I reached him keeps me going on days when being an educator seems too hard and I just want to quit.
As a teacher, you are going to make a difference to someone. It is the nature of our profession that sometimes you will never know how you might have affected someone. Fortunately, other times you will know. People will thank you. You will get scribbled cards, written in crayon in messy first grade writing that say, “You are the best teacher.” You will get a grateful e-mail from a parent or a guidance counselor. Someone will tell you that you are doing a great job.
You need to get yourself a folder or box or an accordion file and save every single one of those positive notes. Save them for days that are difficult, and there will be plenty of those. Save them for when you are working too hard, and not making enough money and it just doesn’t seem worth it. Save it for those day when a parent makes you cry and days when the students are acting out and you are tired of dealing with it all.
When you are down or struggling, take out that folder and start reading. Those messages, notes and cards will lift you up. They will encourage you and remind you that what you are doing matters. They will feed your soul and revive your spirit.
It is human nature to focus on the negative things we experience. If you are going to make it as a teacher, you will also need to focus on the positive. You need to know that someone appreciates your hard work, that someone notices, and that someone cares.
You need to be reminded that you are doing important work and that you are making a difference.
Get yourself a folder and start collecting your positive notes now.
Our best,
