{"id":2098,"date":"2018-05-10T08:55:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T12:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=2098"},"modified":"2018-05-10T08:55:35","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T12:55:35","slug":"a-counselors-thank-you-to-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2018\/05\/10\/a-counselors-thank-you-to-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"A Counselor\u2019s Thank You to Teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Editor’s Note: National Teacher Appreciation Day was celebrated on Tuesday, May 8. <\/em>National Teacher Appreciation Week<\/a> runs through Friday, May 11.<\/em><\/p>\n

We hear about all the great teachers in the counseling office. The one who set the times tables to the tune of Pharrell Williams\u2019 \u201cHappy,\u201d ensuring kids will remember them forever, even if it will take a while to get to eight times nine. Mr. Jones, the history teacher who dressed up like Benjamin Franklin for an entire week and never once broke character. The 10th grade English teacher who finally explained \u201ci after e\u201d in a way that made sense. When you put that much thought into a lesson, it makes for memorable teaching.<\/p>\n

Of course, that\u2019s not the only way teachers become memorable. The teacher who said just the right words at just the right time to the bully who had incredible art talent, making the student more comfortable with who they really were, and less of a bully. The teacher who wore the cut-rate perfume a special needs student gave her at Christmas, every time that student had a spelling test\u2014the same perfume she\u2019d wear when attending that student\u2019s graduation from medical school. The teacher who shows up at the Saturday soccer league and cheers loudly for all her students on the sidelines, even though her students are spread throughout both teams, and it\u2019s 40 degrees out.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t analyze a test score to determine what these teachable moments do to the learning and learning habits of students, but everyone seems to understand what they do to students\u2019 lives. Like recess, these teachable moments inspire in ways we can\u2019t quite measure, but we still know their worth is beyond measure.<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t just discrete, feel-good stories. Most of my counseling work for the last 13 years has involved working with students in college placement. In that time, every student\u2014every single one\u2014has had the chance to go to college. Many have earned at least one merit scholarship, and for those who have been out for four years or more, nearly all of them have finished college on time.<\/p>\n

Almost none of that is due to me. It\u2019s a tribute to the teacher who took a group of 6 year olds into the woods for an entire class period and told them to watch and listen\u2014and they did; to the teacher who had flags from 45 nations in his fourth-grade social studies classroom and talked about the country each flag represented for a full year; to the two teachers who took significant scorn from their colleagues every year they wanted to team-teach Lord of the Flies<\/em>, even though it threw such a wrench into the middle school schedule.<\/p>\n

Making the most of college\u2014and learning a trade for that matter\u2014isn\u2019t at all about getting in. It\u2019s about the absorbing, the becoming, the grappling of new ideas that doesn\u2019t end until the idea is now an honored friend. That state of mind, the acquisition of the habits needed to do that kind of learning, is the essence of teaching. It is alive and well in the classrooms of the colleagues I eat lunch with. More important, it is in the hearts, minds, and souls of the students they serve.<\/p>\n

This week reminds me of the story of the principal who was interviewing candidates for a middle school English position. The first five interviews were all remarkably short, where the principal asked each candidate what they taught. When they responded, \u201cI teach English,\u201d the principal said, \u201cI see. Well, thank you for coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interview with the sixth candidate started with the same question, \u201cWhat do you teach?\u201d When the candidate responded, \u201cWhy, I teach students about the wonders of the English language,\u201d the principal responded with, \u201cI see. Tell me more about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is one thing to consider Teacher Appreciation Day as a triumph over the long odds of limited budgets, aging facilities, crowded classrooms, and wonky internet connections. That\u2019s an important discussion to have, but this week is more about those who serve, and what they leave their students with. In the end, that is all teaching ever was; it is what it must continue to be, if our world is to continue to flourish.<\/p>\n

\"\"NACAC Past President Patrick O\u2019Connor is associate dean of college counseling at Cranbrook Schools in Metropolitan Detroit and the inaugural School Counselor Ambassador Fellow with the US Department of Education.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: National Teacher Appreciation Day was celebrated on Tuesday, May 8. National Teacher Appreciation Week runs through Friday, May 11. We hear about all the great teachers in the counseling office. The one who set the times tables to the tune of Pharrell Williams\u2019 \u201cHappy,\u201d ensuring kids will remember them forever, even if it … Continue reading A Counselor\u2019s Thank You to Teachers<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Patrick O'Connor","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/patrick-oconnor\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-xQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}