Teacher Treasure

Today, I was given something that can only be described as a Teacher Treasure. If you are one of the fortunate souls who finds himself happily immersed in the world of teaching, living the lifestyle, you know exactly what a Teacher Treasure is.

What exactly is this prize? A young lady emailed me and asked for my help. The help is honestly nothing, but it was the motivation for the request that is a gold deblume of the highest purity. The young lady making the request was a student of mine this year in Honors Sophomore English, and she is a poet. She filled me in on a little project that she and a friend, another student in HSE, were working on. The poet, M, thrived during our study of spoken word poetry, and her partner in rhyme, L, is a bit of a videographer. They had developed this project in which M's poetry might come to life through L's gifts with visual storytelling. They are almost finished shooting the footage they plan to use but were in need of one more location: a classroom. M wondered if I would be able to help them out. They hated to ask, but they also knew I would not be able to say "No."

A request to let two students into a classroom to shoot footage for a spoken word poetry film project, a project being undertaken not to complete some assignment and earn an A, but to feed a hunger to create, to produce, to grow.

That, my friends, is Teacher Treasure.

How can I view it in any other way? Two students are learning and growing, on their own, tapping into strengths that they have discovered and that they are letting me in on. I won't make a penny more from the experience, and I cannot claim it for professional development points that will help be relicense when the time comes. And yet, that email is as rewarding as anything one could imagine. The poet and filmmaker probably have no idea that I would see the email not as an imposition or duty but as a blessing. They will know how much it will mean to me view the finished product. I won't pretend not to be immensely proud of them both. After all, I try to be sincere with my kids, and to hide that pride would be unfair to them. Besides, when it comes down to it, I owe them, and every one of those kids who have filled my life with these moments.

We have to remember that, and never forget to collect those glittering moments, whether they be a note from former student who has reached new levels of success, a graduation photo of a paper tiger, a clipping recounting a championship run, a post on a creative writing blog, or simply a smile on a morning when you tell a kid "Nice job". We need to rummage through the treasure trove from time to time,  peering into the golden surfaces and the clear diamond depths, remembering what makes them so valuable and why they so effectively purchase the passion that makes this more than a vocation.