Oh Captain, My Captain #TeachersChangeLives

"Oh Captain, My Captain!"
I remember watching Dead Poet's Society and thinking, "Yes! I had that teacher!"  

You know, the one who made me believe I could do anything and inspired me to truly want to become a teacher.  

Even twenty-five plus years later, I can still remember how my 9th grade English teacher made me feel. Truly feel.  I learned to love works like Romeo & Juliet and Flowers for Algernon while learning how to write 5-paragraph-essays and making them exciting! I was fortunate enough to have many phenomenal teachers throughout my life. She was simply one who made the biggest impact in my life.  

When I decided I wanted to become a teacher, I hoped to inspire kids or even just one kid in that same way my English teacher inspired me.

I taught kindergarten in a lower-income area of my hometown...by choice.

I wanted my students, who often had a parent in jail, worried about where their next meal would come from, lived in a too-small apartment for the number of family members living with them, to come into my classroom and simply feel safe.  Feel happy.  To be able to leave the very real struggles of their young 5 year old lives, outside of our school family door.  I knew that these young faces would be looking to me for hope.  I took that responsibility very seriously. I wanted them to come into my classroom and love school! With all the cards potentially stacked against them, I believed that if they didn't begin their love of school in my kindergarten classroom, it would be that much more difficult to help them to love school later. 

Classroom supplies were at a minimum.  I dug into my own pockets to make sure my students had the supplies to be able to foster this love of learning I so very much wished to instill in them and make the lessons relevant and meaningful to them, as their childhoods looked so very different from my own. 

With increasing demands in education and a struggling economy, teachers are reaching even further into their pockets to fund what they need to make their classrooms innovative and effective.  

Please consider donating to a teacher in your community!

If you've ever questioned a teacher's ability to make a difference, watch this video of students...

Office Depot and Adopt-A-Classroom have partnered together to help teachers change lives! 

{Adopt-A-Classroom is a nonprofit organization that helps connect donors with teachers to enhance the learning environment for students.}

• How to Register Your Classroom as a Teacher
1. Go to Teachers Change Lives website (http://clvr.li/1emq4KF)
2. Click on the red box that says "Register Your Classroom," which will take you to the Adopt-A-Classroom website
3. Follow the corresponding steps from there

• How to Donate to a Teacher
1. Go to Teachers Change Lives website (http://clvr.li/1emq4KF)
2. Click on the teal "Donate to a Teacher" box on the Teachers Change Lives website (http://clvr.li/1emq4KF), which will take you to the Adopt-A-Classroom website
3. Follow the corresponding steps from there

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.