Teachers do not teach because of the money. Honestly, by the time I pay for child care I think I clear about $200 a month and most of that is spent on dry erase markers and candy for my students. (Best gift for a teacher? Gift card at Office Depot). I really do teach because I love doing it. I love my subject, and I love my students. My students are full of life, potential, innocence, and an inability to imagine life’s obstacles. It is hard to not be optimistic about your own future when you are surrounded by that kind of energy. Plus, they are interesting people (for the most part) and many times they make me laugh (mainly at myself).

I teach because today I received my student evaluations from the fall and some of the comments I received said things like; “She makes me want to do my best work”, “Her enthusiasm for English actually made me like it”, “She really makes things clear and I feel like I learned a lot”. (They also said things like “She’s too hard” and “I wish she gave study guides”) THAT is my pay. THAT is why I teach. I teach in the hopes that one person will walk away knowing how to communicate their ideas a bit clearer than they did before. I hope that one student will look back and say “I read Emily Dickinson in college and really liked her”, or perhaps, shockingly someone might actually say “I never liked Shakespeare until I read Othello in my freshman English class”.

When I look back on my education I can point to a handful of English teachers that influenced my writing, my reading and who I am as a teacher. I’d like to just honor them for a moment:

• Ms. Cook, Brighton High School — she was very enthusiastic and somehow made diagramming sentences seem like a good time.
• Mrs. Morrisson, Brighton High School — she never was embarrassed to share things from her own life and that made what we were reading seem more interesting (including her story about seeing a UFO).
• Mrs. Rafferty, Brighton High School — she introduced me to Jane Austen, Shaw, Tennyson, Shelley, Keats, Bronte. It makes me cry thinking of the beautiful language that she showed me and that inspired me to dedicate the rest of my education to studying it.
• Artie Johnson, Western Michigan University — he gave me the confidence to write
• Martin Schictmann, Eastern Michigan University — he showed me how relevant and current Chaucer, Beowulf and King Arthur can be in relation to The Simpsons. Hey, a fart joke is funny whether or not it is coming from Chaucer or Bart Simpson.

These moments when students acknowledge your hard work, and praise you for inspiring them is better than any paycheck. It is what teachers live for. Please Internet, I beg of you, take a moment over the next couple of weeks and thank the teachers that made a difference in your life. At the end of the day that is truly the only pay they receive.