Letters From Teachers:

• Acting to learn, learning to act
• Born to teach
• Passing on a positive impact
• Why do I teach
• Learning together
• Loving the subject and the students
• Leading through our commitments
• Small victories keep me coming back
• Hands-on interaction draws me to teaching
• Awsome students inspire me
• Myriad reasons draw me to teach
• Taking pride in teaching
• Rediscovering the world through students' eyes
• Students' self-confidence is greatest gift
• Making a difference

Leslie Blesener:

Small victories keep me coming back

Teachers have an astonishing power to make a difference in the world. Too often, students and teachers are portrayed in a negative light in the media. As a result, the general public perceives schools as places of violence where little learning goes on. Those of us in the classroom know that positive things happen daily and lives are being changed – one student at a time.

The small victories I see in the classroom are what keep me coming back year after year. We teachers help young people learn to be inquisitive, responsible and creative; we teach students to look beyond the easy solution, to think deeply about the world, and to dream beyond the confines of the lives of the people around them. I have invested my lifetime in this work because I know I have the power to change the future.

Despite all its challenges, teaching is still a wonderful way to spend a lifetime. Teaching has the power to change lives. I know because it has changed mine. I am so glad I made the choice to become a teacher.

Leslie Blesener,
B.A. English, '72
Norwalk, CA

Hands-on interaction draws me to teaching »