LITMIR.BIZ

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of a teacher.

      The following Saturday, over 4,000 people paid their respects to Mark and Rae Ann Wieder. Lines circled the church in Macungie, Pennsylvania, and people waited for hours to say their goodbye to two people they respected and loved so much.

      I’m not sure if Mark ever grasped the actual impact he had as a teacher, the legacy he built, or the lives he helped change course, including mine. Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever really know how long our fingerprints, as educators, will last on those we have the privilege to serve. Mark’s fingerprints will be seen on the lives of others for generations.

      The Impact of a Teacher

      Never say that you are just a teacher. You have just the right opportunity, every day, to change the lives of kids—just like my mentor Mark Wieder did, for over two-and-a-half decades.

      Mark’s passing helped me understand that the quality of our relationships dictates our personal happiness. Ultimately, these relationships solidify and authenticate our successes. For Mark, these relationships were plentiful. They were personal in nature. They were authentic in experience. They were the foundation of all he did, both at home and at school. They are his legacy.

      In our schools and classrooms, we need to ensure that students are not experience rich and relationship poor. It is in the quality of your relationships where your legacy as an educator will live.

      I’ve come to learn that the more personal and authentic we are, the greater our impact will be. As educators, our effectiveness is based on the quality of our relationships. These relationships are the foundation of our work, the center of our why.

      Never say that you are just a teacher. You have just the right opportunity, every day, to change the lives of kids.

      As an educator, your fingerprints remain on the lives of those you serve. The greater your impact, the more profound and long-lasting the prints will be. Your daily work alters the course of history as you mold and shape the lives of others and that of future generations. Your fingerprints and legacy change the course of humanity. But you determine how it will change through the choices you make and the relationships you build.

      Another month passed, and our school family was still grieving. All who have experienced the loss of a loved one know how difficult moving forward can be. We didn’t hide our grief. We worked together to face our new reality, and it reflected in our work.

      For an authentic writing experience, I asked the kids to write a short essay answering the following prompt:

      “Write a descriptive paragraph about someone that you admire. Make sure to include as many reasons as you can that tell why you admire that person. Make sure to include things you have seen the person do that have inspired you.”

      Selfishly for me, it was an opportunity to write about Mark. It was an opportunity to write down the many ways his life touched mine. It was an opportunity for me to be vulnerable in front of my students. It was an opportunity for me to show humility. It was an opportunity to continue to grieve. It was an opportunity for me to finally take a step forward.

      I shared how, as a new teacher, I admired Mark Wieder for who he was. I admired him for his integrity and how his love for others radiated in everything he did. I admired the teacher he was and how his kids loved being in his class. I also shared how I admired Mark for having the courage to call me out when I was wrong and to help me become a better teacher. For me, Mark defined the true meaning of a teacher, as he was far more than a content deliverer—he was a life changer.

      That week, I shared my writing with my students and used it as a model for their work. I shed many tears throughout the writing process and was amazed at my students’ responses to my vulnerability as I shared my heart with them. Our team had transformed from a group of students previously known for behavioral issues to a team of kids who would be bound together forever by tragedy.

      The following Monday, the students finished and handed in their essays. I still remember many of them being unable to stop talking about the person they wrote about because of the impact that person had on them. They had excitement in their voices and love in their eyes. They were proud.

      That night I read the essays with joy. Faith wrote about her mom, Bryan wrote about his favorite baseball player, and Alyssa wrote about her gymnastics coach. And then I read what Cody had written.

      Cody wasn’t your typical student. He was a student I knew I needed to find ways to reach. He was one of the students I knew needed extra love. He was also one of the students that Mark helped me learn to understand. After Mark pushed me to really get to know my kids, I began eating lunch with students one-on-one each day to get to know them as people rather than just as learners.

      Cody was one of those students who marched to his own drum. During recess, most times, he’d wander the playground on his own. He’d often come to school with mismatched clothes or missing his homework. It was during our first lunch together the previous November that my heart began to connect to his. When I asked Cody what his biggest goals were that year, he smiled faintly and said he “was hoping to make a friend that year.” I remember holding back tears the moment I internalized it. I remember feeling awful that it had taken me until November to know that about him. We had spent so much time together in the classroom, yet I hardly knew his heart. I remember promising myself in that moment that I would do whatever it took to help him. Before I could really teach him, I had to try to understand him.

      Over the following months, Cody and I ate lunch together regularly. As Mark had suggested, I’d play soccer with him at recess, and other students would join in. I learned of his love for science and video games. I discovered his fun-loving, quirky personality. The more I got to know Cody, the more he knew I cared for him. His attendance and grades began to improve. He began to display some confidence, and his smile began to show more frequently. The day he came in telling me about his two best friends in the class, he wore one of the biggest smiles I’d ever see on him.

      After a few moments of reflection, I read Cody’s essay. He had written about me.

      Tears flowed from the moment I saw my name on his paper following the word admire. For the first time, I felt that even as a brand-new teacher, with so much to learn, I could have an impact on the lives of others. I finally had that feeling, one that Mark probably had countless times over his career.

      I spent the rest of that evening feeling proud of my kids. They shared their hearts with me through their writing and articulated why they admired others with such detail.

      Students were off the following day, as it was a teacher in-service day. After spending the majority of the morning with the other fourth-grade teachers in the district and then going out to lunch with my team, we returned for the afternoon sessions. Soon into that afternoon session, a voice said over the loudspeaker, “Tom Murray, if you’re in the building, please come to the office.”

      My colleagues looked at me, perplexed. I had a sinking feeling; something just didn’t feel right. I grabbed my bag, packed up my stuff, and stepped out into the hallway. One of the district administrators, Karen Beerer, was walking toward me. I will never forget what she said to me: “Tom, it’s not your family, but something’s happened.” We walked downstairs to the main office. She couldn’t bring herself to say much else.

      We entered the high school principal’s office and someone closed the door behind us. As I sat in the chair they had pulled out for me, I looked around the room and saw the superintendent, the two assistant superintendents, and my school principal, Bill Gretzula, who had tears in his eyes. Bill had been a rock of courage and support for me since Mark’s loss. He said, “Tom, this morning something terrible happened.”

      I remember feeling like I wasn’t strong enough to hear what he was about to say. I can remember bracing myself for the worst.

      Bill continued, “This morning, while at home, Cody passed away.”

      My

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