Letters of Gratitude

Dear third-grade teacher,

Thank you for teaching me that there's more to reading than just learning how to read, write and speak. What used to be torture turned into an addiction for me.

With all the teachers I have had over the years the third grade is the year I remember the most. It was the year I hit the most milestones in my life. The year everything changed for me.

The third grade was the year I fell in love with reading. That was the year Harry Potter was read to us -I couldn't wait for the next time Harry Potter was read to us. It got to the point I was begging for my own copy of Harry Potter.

Since then I couldn't wait for the next read. Reading used to be used as a punishment as a kid but once I hit the third grade reading became a game changer for me.

One question I have for teachers in general; Do you realize how much of an impact you have on students? More so children in general? Maybe you do and that's why you became a teacher. Maybe you don't and that is completely okay too.

Yes, you became a teacher for the love of learning and teaching young impressionable children and you do have a learning plan you have to complete for each term but taking a few minutes of the day to do something outside of the teaching plan makes a difference.

I remember I couldn't wait till the next time she read to us. When I got my own copy of Harry Potter, I couldn't wait to run to tell her about it. Every book I read after that I couldn't wait to tell the teacher what I had read.

Before the third grade, I wasn't a strong reader. Now 31 with gone to school for Journalism, a passion for writing and reading an average of about 100 books a year. If you had asked me the summer before the third grade if I saw myself as a nerd at 31 I would have laughed in your face and climbed a tree.

Sometimes I wish we could go back as fully grown adults and show teachers we made it. Especially with the thing we had the most difficulty grasping as a child and turned into a passion- a career.

If I could go back and visit my third-grade teacher- not just the third-grade teacher but any teacher to be honest, I would only have one thing to say; Thank you. Thank you for never giving up on your students and taking the extra effort and time to help them get to the end of the school year.

We wouldn't make it this far in life without teachers. Teachers never get the credit they deserve. They play a huge role in the development of young impressionable children.

If one teacher can make a difference to one student in a class of 30 or so children, what would happen if there were enough teachers for the correct student-teacher ratio?

Could you imagine what would happen if there were more teachers?

This is supposed to be a letter of Gratitude but how can I write a whole letter just for that? There are not enough words or letters in the English language to be able to put together how much gratitude I have for the third-grade teacher who had me fall in love with reading from such a young age. Also, for every teacher after her who took a chance on me and helped me improve throughout my entire school years.