For one week in February beginning on Valentine’s Day, a social media campaign called #LoveTeaching encourages teachers to share what they love about teaching. With all of the negativity surrounding my profession, I love the chance to celebrate it. Here are a few glimpses from my teaching journey; I added personal photos hoping this will give you a glimpse into how fortunate I am that I get to teach.

I love that I both start and end the year focused on possibilities.

I love that when my 2^nd block took a year-end picture, one boy felt compelled to turn around, bend over, and look through his legs.

I love Food Fridays and field trips.

I loved that almost my entire AP class drove an hour to go to a funeral for one of their classmate’s mother.

I love the notes and the pictures.

I love that when my students asked if they could read outside on a nice day, they had an Eno put up by the time I got out there.

I love that I have ample material to laugh at every day.

I love that the class of 2014 would hashtag #theBarb in their tweets.

I love that a student who doesn’t have paper that day thinks a paper plate is an acceptable replacement.

I love watching my students read.

I love that one student drew a ninja on every exam and told me how the ninja distracted him from studying properly.

I love that when I asked my seniors to write a letter to themselves which I will mail to them in 5 years, one kid put a $20 in it.

I love serving our school and community through National Honor Society with my students.

I love going to book signings of former students.

I love that my bulletin board is full of acceptance letters from dream colleges.

I love gifts from students even though I wonder what the student who gave me this apple was thinking.

I love celebrating students who plan on serving our country when they leave high school.

I love that one kid put #helpme on her works cited page.

I love watching students who have worked hard receive recognition and rewards.

I love my colleagues and my PLN.

I love that one kid wrote “dang, thought that said corn hole and got excited” in his Pride and Prejudice annotations. (Here’s another random annotation).

I love that students feel the need to leave pictures of themselves on my iPad whey they use it during class.

I love an honest answer to a test question.

I love that my classes write on the board words they hate, class pet ideas, and football score predictions.

I love that you never know who will show up to class.

The list could go on and on, but the bottom line is I can’t put my finger on what I love about being a teacher.  The thought of being one small part of helping a student get from point A to point B whether in academic or character growth or in maturity in general excites me. The love of teaching keeps me up at night, gets me up in the morning, and is the cause for many Sunday afternoon naps. Here’s to many more years of loving teaching.