Appreciated

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. 

I was going to write a post about how under-appreciated we feel, how people have misconceptions about the teaching profession, and what being a teacher is really like. 

But none of that is important.

What is important is that I love what I do. I don't think there is anything else I could do that would give me the same feeling I get when my kids get it. Or the one I get when a kid jumps two reading levels within the course of a year. Or the one I get when I hear my students tell me how much they missed me when I had a substitute the day before.

Or even the one I got this morning, when a parent of one of my students sent me a link to this blog post he wrote for our local newspaper.

Yep. I feel pretty appreciated right about now. And it's things like that post that make me feel like all that other stuff is just stuff, and what I do makes a difference.