Exceptional It's all about heart Love Given and Received by Rachelle Allen      For Teachers Only Contest Winner

Teaching isn't just a job, teaching is a calling. It's steeped in an abiding love and how your heart is falling.   Facts that you are to bestow upon a student's mind pale when they are viewed against whether you were kind.   Two plus two is always four; some students learn that faster. Good teachers gladly wait until  tenacity they master.   Growth is like a gorgeous plant which started as a sprout. Caring's the ingredient that brings its beauty out.   It's said: "They don't care what you know until they know you care." And not just anyone can teach; this talent's very rare.   It's not about the subjects taught (for me, Performing Arts). Instead, it's what you feel inside from nurturing young hearts.   A teacher who says, "Come on, Sweets! Now, let me watch you soar!" is the one who'll always see sweet victories galore.   'Cause every student hearing that will want to make you proud, since you're who saw their inner gold and said so right out loud.   Teaching isn't just a job. And if you do it right, like me, you'll love it forty years, each moment a delight.     each moment a delight. For Teachers Only Contest Winner Recognized Author Notes The girls in this photo may LOOK like Disney princesses (well, not the one in the middle. That one's me, in a sort of Cruella DeVille-like frock...) but they're actually my Teaching Students --girls who, during the entirety of their eighth grade year, I tutored each week, after their own lessons, on how to become teachers, themselves. Then, from ninth to twelfth grades, I assigned them their own Beginner piano students to teach! They loved it because it was so lucrative ($12/$14/$16/$18 per thirty-minute lesson, depending on their year in high school), which allowed them to save a lot toward college. (Each girl had at least three students, and one, by her Senior year, had ELEVEN!!) Their students loved it because of how cool it was to have a teacher that young and relatable. Their students' parents loved it because their children were learning piano rather than remanded to my Waiting List (plus, they received a discounted rate). And I loved it because, as each Teaching Student graduated, I "inherited" her students...and they'd all been taught exactly as if I'd taught them, myself. It was a tremendously successful program that I kept active from 2005 - 2020. (Stupid COVID!) I've kept in touch with all my Teaching Students (twelve in all), two of whom have become music teachers, themselves. Another became a professional musician with the Cleveland Philharmonic, while still another became a school mental health counselor. Of the five pictured here, from left to right, their professions are: PhD in Physical Therapy PhD in Finance and Venture Capitalism Final year, Med School Professional (and award-winning!) filmmaker Financial analyst, NYC, for Merrill Lynch Every beloved Teaching Student has told me more than once that the days spent at the piano bench with their students are still among their all-time favorite life memories. So, see what I mean? Love given and received.

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