I love teaching!  I am Passionate about the education of children!  I love having “ah ha” moments with my students.  I live for the privilege to shape a young person’s thinking, to light the candle of their understanding, to help put in place the building blocks of their achievement.  I have little patience for teaching health, options, or even physical education.  It is not that I don’t think those things are important, in fact, as a parent, I am very grateful for teachers who love teaching those subjects to my kids.  However, as a teacher, it is not what lights my fire.  I want to be involved in the daily battle that learning can be.  Therefore, I think one of the most frustrating things for me as a teacher is when the students start to check out two months before the end of the year.  It makes dragging myself to work each day harder and harder.  Those moments that feed my soul getting further and further apart.  It becomes easier and easier to say, “Why bother?”  I have not yet submitted to the easy, casual routine of showing movies because the kids don’t want to learn and I have too much work to do.  Yet, each day, it gets easier for me to consider it.  How can I stay true to my belief that everyday of the school year is important for teaching and learning, when all those around me are giving up? How can I keep seeing the purpose and potential of each day for each student?