Respond: What do you love the most about teaching?

My students. My students are, by far, the best part about my job.

Sure, there are some who are difficult. There are some kids who don’t want to be at school. But ultimately, no matter how difficult they can be, every kid needs an adult who advocates for him or her. For some kids, I am the only one.

In ten years, I’ve taught roughly 250 kids. I still think about those kids every day. Several of those students are my Facebook friends, and while I know that some teachers are staunchly against “friending” their students, I truly feel like these kids are my friends. Many of them have come to me since leaving my classroom and asked for advice, or told me about the problems they’re facing. It is so important to me that I be there for them, whether they’re still in my classroom or not.

And when I get comments like this… how can I not love them?

So yes, my students are absolutely what I love most about teaching.