World Teachers' Day Surprise

This past Friday, schools around Austraia celebrated World Teachers' Day. Each year whichever client school we're in it's always a pleasure to watch the varied ways the community will shower appreciation on their valued educators. Teaching is such a vulnerable journey, but the impact created through the connection built, challenges and opportunities navigated, and tears and joy shared can be profound. Thank you to all the teachers who have helped carve out the path we have and are now enjoying, as well as all the educators around the world who each day courageously walk shoulder to shoulder with students through the complexity of individual and shared learning journeys.

"We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why."― Stephen King

This week I definitely received a World Teachers' Day surprise. On Wednesday and Friday we were in the same client school. On Wednesday, as I set up for the afternoon session I was approached by a young teacher. He greeted me with, 'Mr Brown?'' As i rolled through the compendium of students I've taught over the years I unfortunately just couldn't make a visual match (the sunglasses, different hairstyle and 14 years since I taught him in Year 6 made it an initial challenging task). As we started talking he said something so humbling, 'I just wanted you to know that you inspired me to go into teaching'. By this stage I'd made the match, and had memories flooding back of him and others from that class.

"[Kids] don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are."― Jim Henson

It was such a joy to chat about all that'd been happening in his life. There were travelling and adventure stories. How his siblings and family were going. Plans for the future. And he was also so inquisitive about how I was and what I was now doing with Explore Discover Act. I'm so grateful for all the people, places and experiences that have made up my educational and educator journey. There's always been so much to learn from, grow within and ultimately contribute back to others within my spheres of influence.