Best Teacher won award...

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Fw: Now She Is A Teacher !!!!
 
 
 
        NOW SHE IS A TEACHER!!!
 
        In September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren,
a History teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did
something not to be forgotten.  On the     first day of school,
with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal
and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks in her
classroom. When the first period kids entered the room they
discovered that there were no desks.  'Ms. Cothren, where are our
desks?'
 
 
 
 
 
        She replied, 'You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn
the right to sit at a desk.'
 
 
 
        They thought, 'Well, maybe it's our grades.'  'No,' she sa' Maybe
it's our behavior.' She told them, 'No, it's not even your
behavior.'
 
        And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third
period. Still no desks in the classroom. Kids called their parents
to tell them what was happening and by early afternoon television
news crews had started gathering at the school to report about
this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.
 
        The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found
seats on the floor of the desk-less classroom. Martha Cothren
said, 'Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just
what he or she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that
are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell
you.'
 
        At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her
classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in
uniform, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school
desk.
 
 
 
 
 
        The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they
would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last
soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to
understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how
the right to sit at those desks had been earned.
 
        Martha said, 'You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks.
These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you.
 
        They went halfway around the world, giving up their education and
interrupting their careers and families so you could have the
freedom you have.  Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your
responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens.
They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an
education.
 
        Don't ever forget it.'
 
 
 
        By the way, this is a true story. And this teacher was awarded
Veterans of Foreign Wars Teacher of the Year for the State of
Arkansas in 2006. She is the daughter of a WWII POW.
 
 
 
 
 
        Do you think this email is worth passing along so others
 
        won't forget either, that the freedoms we have in this great country
 
        were earned by             our U. S. Veterans?  ................... I
 
        did.
 
 
 
        Let us always remember the men and women of our military and the
rights
 
        they have won for us.
 
 
 
        Blessings abound in our USA!
 

Best teacher...

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student.
She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Mark talked about you a lot.'

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon.
Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'

Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'

'I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my diary'

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

And One Way To Accomplish This Is: Forward this message on. If you do not send it, you will have, once again passed up the wonderful opportunity to do something nice and beautiful.

If you've received this, it is because someone cares for you and it means there is probably at least someone for whom you care.

If you're 'too busy' to take those few minutes right now to forward this message on, would this be the VERY first time you didn't do that little thing that would make a difference in your relationships?

The more people that you send this to, the better you'll be at reaching out to those you care about.

Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.