This November I am participating in the month-long facebook postings of what I am thankful for this month. It’s been pretty easy until today. Today is the first day in which I have had to really think of something to post.

My day started off well, a college friend of mine spoke to my class this morning. That would not seem so unusual until I mention that this friend works in Washington DC and visited my class via skype. It’s the first time I had used skype and was nervous that the connection would fail. Everything went off without a hitch and I learned a great deal, I hope the students did, as well. On the way out, I received a piece of news I wasn’t too happy to get. In fact, it did a 180 on my mood. Then, to add insult to injury, the bearer of said bad news gave me a back-handed compliment. I know that he did not intend to insult me, but it stung nonetheless. Why do people assume that teachers have only one skill…teaching? As a secondary educator, you must have a content area. Does being a teacher make you less knowledgeable in your content area than someone who is employed in that content area? What if in the process of teaching that content area, you consistently had to keep your skills current in order to be able to teach that content area? What if you had to practice the skills you actually teach in the course of doing your job? What it boils down to is that I feel professionally underestimated. What’s done is done, but it doesn’t make the sting any less real.