How do others see you?

I do not often give a lot of thought to how I am perceived by other people. 

I do what I do because it is the right action to take, the right activity, the right words, whatever the situation is, I work to do what is right. 

I am not perfect, no one is.  However, I work hard to improve myself daily.  I believe that I have a purpose, and while I do not know exactly what it is, I work to be the best I can be every day. 

Recently, Mr. Eads (the principal of our school) informed me that I had been nominated for Teacher of the Year for our school, and asked if I wanted to accept the nomination.  After I finished laughing, I gave serious thought to this honor.

I asked myself how I compared with other teachers at my school.  I don't have the most experience. I am only in my second year of teaching Language Arts, so I am constantly changing my lesson plans to improve them.  I also am somewhat rebellious in that I do not use our textbook all the time. I would prefer to teach my students about a subject relevant to their lives while incorporating the required State Standards into our lessons.  Therefore, I spend a lot of my time writing lessons and searching for non-fiction reading passages that fit with my lessons.  I am sarcastic.  I know this and that it can be unintentionally perceived differently than I intend.  Therefore, I work to get to know my students so that I know which students can handle the sarcasm and which ones I need to tone it down with.  I love my students, they are such wonderful individuals.  It is because of their diverse personalities, learning styles and learning abilities that I go to school every day to teach.  I devise my lessons to reach different levels of learning.  I work picture books, games, music, art, and novels into my lessons.  I change seating arrangements, so the students can work independently, with partners or small groups.  They have opportunities to get up and move around the classroom for different activities. 
In the past 6 years of teaching, I have worked to obtain additional resources for my classroom to enrich the educational experience for my students.  (all of it free of cost to me!)  This year has been one of the most exciting ones so far.  The technology I have obtained has really improved my student's engagement in class.

Well, my thoughts continued to ramble along these lines and I realized that while I may not be the best teacher in our school, I was doing a good job.  So, I accepted the nomination.

On Friday of this week, Mr. Eads sent out the ballot.  I was one of several teachers nominated who had accepted.  No, I did not vote for myself.  I still felt that there are other more qualified teachers in our school.
 This afternoon, I received an email from Mr. Eads indicating that I had been chosen Teacher of the Year for our school!  Well, once I finished laughing, I told my mother-in-law, who was with me at the time.

I still find it funny, but it is a good funny.  I am honored that my colleagues think enough of me to elect me as their representative in this competition.

So, obviously, others see me differently than I do myself.  Perhaps I need to be reminded of my good deeds from time to time and relax.