I just felt like sharing something with you, so bear with me because - in written form- I am a woman of many words. (In life, a woman of action)...

 

I �ve been a member for exactly a month now (I just checked my e-mail confirmation date, and it �s funny that the dates coincide like this), and I �ve become addicted to it, as many of you have. My husband is very understanding, even happy for me, because I finally have a site where I can chat about teaching problems, share ideas, learn so many new things (even details on using my PC and the internet in a way I hadn �t before), ask for help and get it, and get the necessary motivation and inspiration to be a better teacher. And I �m not only talking about worksheets, powerpoints or online exercises. I �m talking about sharing the problems we have with teaching adults, or teenagers, or preschoolers, the problems some people here had with getting students with all kinds of disabilities and deciding on how to approach them, I �m talking about the debates about some verbal usages that really bug us, I �m talking about the help we give each other providing links (which may seem silly to some people, but I always feel like it opens a new window in my professional, sometimes even personal, life)... And I just wanted you all to know that I am very grateful for having met people, teachers of English or not, who find teaching a vocation, not just a paying job, and who, like me, love/hate it and can �t live without it.

 

Anyway, what inspired me to post this were the words of one of my friends who is not a teacher, but who had been for a long time, and who now has a child in school and appreciates teaching as a profession. When I told her about this site, with even more enthusiasm than I �m showing now, and explained the rules and everything, she joked around and said: �Points, ha? So, how many have you got? � And I said it didn �t really matter, because it �s not like I �m doing it for the points... She agreed, thought for a while and said something I had never thought about like that...

�What do you mean points don �t matter?!?!?! Can �t you see that if you have 100 points, it means 100 people in the world have downloaded your stuff! And that means... you have helped 100 people, and some of their students as well... �

 

Enough said...

 

THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING SUCH SWELL TEACHERS AND COLLEAGUES!

 

THANK U VERY MUCH!!!

 

I HAVE 222 POINTS AND I REALLY LIKE TO SHARE AND IMPROVE MY WORK!!!

 

HAVE A GREAT DAY OR NIGHT!!!!

SINCERELY

CARI�O

 

You �re wrong about deleting your lengthy post. I enjoyed reading and rereading it.

It really expresses how I feel.

I can �t deny that at first I cared about points, but day after day this great lovely community proved to me as well as to many other members that it �s more than points and competitions. This site bears great love, support, cooperation, and good friends .

This site has always flourished and is still flourishing daily.

 

And the biggest joy resides , as Liberty mentioned, in the fact that our contributions are shared all over the world. We are no more national teachers. We are now international teachers. My students know about  many teachers here. They love your worksheets and ask for more. They like the idea of sharing foreign students the same materials. 

 

Anita, keep the post lively here. It rocks and I �m eager to read more opinions.

Lots of love,

Nebal

 

 

 

thanks for the inspiration...

 

Beautiful words and beautiful story, my husband also sometimes looks through the site with me, smiling and making sure there are mostly girls here...

 

I guess that �s the only right way to look at your points - indeed, that many teachers you have helped. We tend to forget about this viewpoint sometimes.

 

Thanks.