Reasons Why I Love Teaching

So, the new school year has started and it's going to be a fun year. These are things I can already tell. My students have a lot of personality, which for me is the sign of a good class. I feel I really have had some fun moments thus far in my teaching career. So many that I felt a Top Ten list would be ultra appropriate for this great time of year.

Top Ten Teaching Moments

10. Getting a note from a student that said: "Miss Rotar, I will miss you forever, even when I'm dead." There you have it, teacher love from beyond the grave.

9. After spending hours choreographing a 75 student dance to "Seize the Day," I watched all my cute fifth graders in newsies hats do the routine flawlessly for our Dance Festival. Best dance ever!

8. During our faculty softball game against the 6th graders, I was wearing my senior t-shirt from high school. Across the back is the year I

graduated ('98) in really large type. While I was up to bat, my students started chanting what they thought was my number. Ninety eight! Ninety eight! It was amazing.

7. After being sick and having to miss a day of school, a student presented me with a picture of me with horns and a tail being operated on by the devil. The caption at the top? "Get Well Soon" of course.

6. After telling my students about my favorite cartoon character from childhood (Jem and the

Holograms) one of them told me a few weeks later that she had been watching the episodes on Youtube. She finished them completely in another week or so. Two other students would follow suit. One of them even gave me a watercolor painting of Jem for Teacher Appreciation Week.

5. Being lovingly nicknamed "The Rotar" after the infamous Matilda character, "The Trunchbull."

4. Getting a note from my student with the name of his cousin and his cousin's phone number. The note said "Call him! If you have any questions, ask my mom."

3. Reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" a student was very confused during one part. "I don't get why the squirrel's head fell off." What? When we looked up the page she was talking about, the book read: "And then the squirrel completely lost his head." Yay for lessons about figures of speech, but I couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes.

2. When talking about dogs and how they give kisses, a student told me, "If people kiss like dogs, it's called french kissing." Such a great mental image.

1. Sincerely, when an old student of mine came to speak in front of all the teachers when my Teacher of the Year award was presented. I was crying pretty profusely, but they were good tears.

Being a teacher is too much fun. This is my 7th year, and I hope to have a whole other list in another few years.