Taylor Mali

So lately I have been caught up in teaching, praying for snow days, praying for babies fighting for their lives, nursing sick children with strep and a stomach bug, shopping for groceries (is it just me or have prices gone WAY UP?), doing laundry, etc.  And in those crazy, busy days we call life, I forget sometimes why I am doing the things I do....More specifically, teaching....It's mundane, it's routine, it's Sunday Night Blues, and Friday afternoon pjs and popcorn after 3:00 because we are so exhausted.  It's testing

And testing

And testing.

It's grading papers, it's catching up students who have been absent for days with no medical excuse whatsoever.  It's lesson planning and bell ringing.  It's prompt writing, it's curriculum alligning.  It's ball games and cheerleading tryouts.  It's club sponsoring and bus duty.  It's planning for subs and cleaning up after them.   It's hall duty and can I go to the clinic to see the nurse?  It's safety, locking my doors, planning for emergencies.  It's just so much - and this is all in the course of one day!!

And then this weekend I found a great video (via Pinterest - Don't you just love it?) that I wish I could share with every aspiring teacher, current teacher, teachers on the verge of retiring, every parent, every student, etc.  Because this video really spoke to me and I could identify with EVERYTHING that this man was saying Taylor Mali is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the few people in the world to have no job other than that of poet.  Please click on the link below the picture and watch his video, I hope you identify, I hope you are inspired, I hope you share.....

Taylor Mali: What Teachers Make