Being away from office for two days (pronounced: s-i-c-k l-e-a-v-e.) gave me the oppurtunity to enjoy daytime television. Sadly its just repeats of last night's entertainment, mostly. Anyway, i saw an episode of Oprah, or O as she is known by her smitten fanz. The topic for the episode was 'School Teachers'. Started with one guy who has recently written a book about it, which lays out the 55 laws he abides by to get the job done. He believes in them and follows them strictly. Website

Then there was the English teacher who made Shakespeare fun... this seemed like a cliche to me after watching too much of 'Boston Public'. We didn't really have revolutionary teachers but i still found Shakespeare fun.

Then there was the science teacher. Not just an ordinary science teacher. He taught at a school for the deaf and blind. He told his students to teach him how to see without his eyes. His methods focused on using the students' better senses to get the concepts of science through!

Another teacher was a graduate of Yale. He had an idea and it took the form of Donors Choose. This is an organization that helps bridge able and eager donors and needy schools. The teachers can on this site get a lacking for facilities listed, and in turn the donors can browse through these lists and decide to help them. The donors get a receipt of the purchase that Donors Choose handles for the school chosen. The donor also receives a thank you letter from the teacher who made the plea, and a thank you note from each of the students of the class which benefitted from the help!
So it helps to create a real sense of acheivement on the donor! I thought this was a brilliant idea, and of course it made me want to do something similar. I hope I, or anyone else can rise to these levels. Website

Everytime these success stories, or extra-ordinary individuals' stories were told, the audience would break into a cheer, this kind of cheer is made every time Oprah even bats her eye, but this time... it really felt different. To me, this cheer and applause was going to someone well deserving. The teachers. Usually we applaud celebrities, actors and musicians, and paris hilton types. But this time, to someone who really makes a difference, and is probably not appreciated most of the time!