Are you ready to smile? I hope so! You see, along with it being Teacher Appreciation Week (hooray, hooray!), it’s also National Pet Week (May 3–9). How cool is that? I have a hunch that many teachers have pets. Is my hunch based on scientific evidence? Heck no! My hunch is based on what I know to be true about teachers. They are compassionate. They are patient. And they are nurturers.

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Just this past weekend I had a yard sale. I have to admit I wasn’t very profitable because I’m not very good with negotiating. I ended up giving away almost everything…for nothing! But the bright spot is there’s less clutter in my house. (If only I had had the nerve to sell my husband’s stuff while he was gone. We’re newlyweds and I just haven’t quite adjusted to his “junk,” I mean “stuff,” yet.)

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Okay, quick survey here...how many times have you helped a child open a juice box during your teaching career? By the middle of my third year, I had perfected my lunch duty technique. You should have seen me! I could open a milk carton with one hand and peel a banana with the other.

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What do you think of when I say teacher's lounge? Do you think of a warm, friendly place where you can meet with your peers? A place where you can share ideas and funny stories, maybe get some peer-coaching? Or do you think of a place where you pick up your mail, buy a soda, and leave?

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Many of my students loved to visit the library. You know the type: the kids who couldn’t wait to check out the next book in the Magic Tree House series or another book by Steven Kellogg. Those were the kids who ran to meet me at the door, their faces shining as they proudly held their books up in [...]

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I can only imagine what you’re thinking. “Lessons from a fly? You’ve got to be kidding me. I teach! I don’t have time to talk about flies!” I admit that I don’t usually make time to talk about flies either. In fact, I find them quite annoying. But here’s the deal. The other day I found myself captivated by a very large black fly that was absolutely determined to fly through glass. It buzzed and bashed itself against my window time and time again to no avail.

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This is me after Jazzercise. I'm tired, I'm sweaty, and my photographer is standing really far away from me--so I'm probably a little stinky as well. I try to exercise whenever possible, but let's be honest, shall we? I would rather be sitting on the couch eating a cheesecake and watching reruns of House.

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Ah, the unexpected day off! These are the days that students live for. As a teacher I secretly loved snow days too. Even though it surely meant reworking the weekly lesson plans and returning to over-excited students, I enjoyed having that one treasured day to do whatever I wanted.

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One thing I have always admired about teachers is their ability to juggle so many things at once. In the classroom, we are grading papers, planning lessons, and dealing with all of the events and emotions that come with 26 to 30 students. Then, at home, many of us are managing a household with meals to cook, rooms to clean, and maybe even children to take care of. I, like you, have become very adept at finding shortcuts to getting dinner on the table.

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It’s that funny time of the year where signs of back to school are everywhere, but summer is clearly still in full swing. Here at The MAILBOX we definitely have back-to-school on our minds. All of our August/September magazine issues have mailed, our newest books are already in your local teacher stores, and we are [...]

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