Small victories

So I was having a discussion with my friend Meredith today via e-mail. She's one of my best friends, and since I moved to NYC, she and I have started a little ritual of e-mailing each other throughout the day. It works well since I get e-mail on my Blackberry and she sits at her desk at work.

Well today, I was writing her an e-mail after I got done teaching my lesson on descriptive writing and using adjectives to make writing more engaging (surprisingly, my students got really into it!), and I told her how excited I was that ALL of my students completed today's assignment. Sure this seems like a minor accomplishment, but considering we've been in class for two and a half weeks and this was the first time, I was amazed. I told her, "It's all about the small victories every day." She responded, "As a teacher, that's what you HAVE to focus on." At the time, I didn't realize how much truth there was to that statement, but it was truly inspiration in hindsight. Thank you Meredith for helping me focus on the small accomplishments we make each day. Teaching is one of those day-by-day professions; or, as my friend Joe calls it, "a hard privilege that you HAVE to love doing." So true my friends, and thank you.