Bandaid for a Teacher's Soul

As a teacher, there are days when you just want to drop dead on the floor out of frustration.
I'm sure these days exist for all kinds of jobs.

The reasons behind this desire to drop dead on to the floor can vary for all teachers. However, for me, the following reasons pretty much sum up why I would like to just drop kick teaching in the gut sometimes:

-administration (from time to time, they like to throw complete curve balls at teachers that leave us baffled, confused, and plain angered)

-the children (I love them to death but they do drain the life out of you)

-parents (as much as I've met my fair share of WONDERFUL and SUPPORTIVE parents, I've also met a couple of the EXACT opposite)

-myself (just having one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days)

Today was one of those particularly frustrating days which derived from a combination of factors mentioned above. As I was trying to go about my day with my kiddies, one of my students walks up to me and hands me a note (just to clarify: today was the first day I returned to work after taking a week off for church missions).


As soon as I received this note from my student, the frustration I've been feeling all morning simply dissipated. It was like a magical band aid to my wound. I realize that it's just a piece of paper with a simple drawing of a heart which probably took the student five minutes to make.

However, his thought, love, and motive behind the act was just what I needed to remind me of
why I deal with administration even when they want to give me a huge headache.
why I fell in love with teaching in the first place.

There is no greater band aid to a teacher's wound than that of a child's love.