Chicken Soup for the Soul Celebrates Teachers Read Online Free PDF Page A

wears for readings.
    Jones takes about six to eight books to the house, books appropriate for the grade level or individual needs of the child, and the child picks which book he reads. Afterward, he always inscribes the book with a little note to the child and lets them keep the book.
    Jones says his greatest reward comes in the hugs he gets from kids, and the thank-yous from parents. All of them thank him and write notes and bring treats and share good books. One former student has even asked him to stand up at his wedding. He relates that this is one of the best things that has ever happened to him in his professional career. He now knows that he had a positive impact on this young man.
    Jones’s impact may be felt in many classrooms to come. “Hopefully,” Jones says, “my reading to the children will inspire them to read every night, and in the long run this has a positive impact on both the kids and the teachers.”
    Not to mention the community. For the last two years the Longmont PTA has sponsored a book fair, and in just two years members of the community have donated more than two hundred books to the Goodnight Moon program.
    Teaching is one of the few professions in which you often cannot measure your success until years down the road, Jones notes . . . if a student comes back as an adult and says thanks. Yet even if students don’t return, their teachers’ impact is certain.
    â€œTeachers need to be recognized for the outstanding things they do, every day, for kids. I hope that my story inspires teachers to keep doing what I believe to be the most important profession in the world.”
    Maria D. Laso

WONDERFULNESS
    Bulletin boards are a must, you may know;
    You’ve got to have something right up there to show,
    So if a proud parent, or some school official
    Should drop by to visit, they’ll give a soft whistle
    And say to you later, “I simply adored
    Your interesting, colorful bulletin board!”
    The very first year that ever I taught
    I knew that if I was to be worth my salt,
    I’d have a perpetual, wondrous sight
    All painted and pasted up there to look bright
    And make it look like we did really great stuff
    All day in the classroom. As kids say, look “tough.”
    I forged right ahead with a,“Come on! Let’s go!
    It’s time for the bulletin board thing, you know!”
    I heard some low groans and some dirty words, too;
    My bulletin board kick was not getting through.
    Then somebody snickered . . . out loud—so I’d hear,
    â€œIt was just one big bulletin board all last year!”
    Well, it wasn’t just then I dared do my thing;
    I was simply too new to try out my own wings.
    But before very long I was all up to here
    With bulletin boards, and I got this idea.
    We had a traditional board on the wall
    With pictures of authors we’d studied, and all.
    It was time for a change, so I grabbed up a rose
    That some boy’d brought me, and up on my toes
    I ripped off the old, and with no reservation
    I stapled that rose to the board—a sensation!
    Then I picked up a part of a pencil—all split—
    Right up on the board with Scotch tape, and it fit!

    A broken broom handle tied up the next place,
    A messed-up eraser that wouldn’t erase.
    By now, all the students had got in the swing,
    And all of us bulletin-boarded our thing.
    Part of a love note—snatched—torn up by me
    Went next to the dead rose, significantly,
    A dirty blue beanie left under a chair—
    We stapled it up, and it looked good up there.
    A cheat sheet (used) next, typed up nice and neat
    That somebody went off and left in his seat;
    A small vial of perfume, “Pink Passion” the name;
    A broken-up comb, and a small checkers game.
    Two cards someone lost—a black Jack, a red King
    Were next. They went well with the scheme of the thing.
    A Superman funny book, big wad of gum;
    Then we taped up a rather large Oreo crumb.
    It