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March 31, 2008

What an honor! Of all the teachers in the country who dedicate their lives to educating children, Andrea Peterson was chosen as the 2007 National Teacher of the Year. She began her speech by thanking all who paved the way to help her attain this level of distinction. Andrea is a music teacher and stated, “this was an unbelievable honor, a music teacher getting to speak to a bunch of school board members." The audience exploded with laughter and applause. She emphasized that there were so many people working together to help our children succeed. She thanked Board Members and community members for their overflow of support.

Andrea shared a story from earlier in her teaching career. She revealed that she made a "rookie mistake," and didn't take attendance prior to the start of a music concert. She talked about the importance of every member in the orchestra and how in this particular piece of music being played, she realized at the point of his solo, that the cymbal player wasn't there. Not only did he miss his queue, but in a moment of silence, someone exclaimed, "Wow, Joe didn't show up".

In short, the moral in Andrea’s story is that, "we all need to show up to the concert". She acknowledged that she failed as a teacher to show Joe just how important and valuable he was! Of course, this was a lesson learned and she has excelled to greater heights by making sure that she shows up for her students and values their contributions.

She inspired the audience by leaving us with the following quote:

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Andrea is an amazing inspiration to the children of Granite Falls, WA and received this honor which was well deserved. Congratulations and continue the great work that you do on behalf of the children!

Posted by Terri Sharpp, Blog Team, at 2:07 PM | General Session Speakers

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