BY BERNIE MIXON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SHARONVILLE -- As the sun sets on summer vacation for hundreds of Tristate teachers, Sharon Draper, 1997 National Teacher of the Year, has urged educators to rekindle a passion for teaching.
It's a torch that teachers need to light in themselves before they set foot in a classroom to inspire students to learn.
"I like the first days. Everything is brand new. Everything smells good -- that smell of hope, possibility and floor wax," she said. "(Students) come in, and their faces are fresh and excited. There's the challenge. They sit down and see what you have to offer."
Ms. Draper was the keynote speaker at the second biennial Educators Resource Fair sponsored by Cinergy and held Thursday at the Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Road. About 200 people attended.
"It's important that we remember what we do and why we do it," she said. "Do you remember when (teaching) was exciting, when it was a joy, when it was a thrill?"
Ms. Draper is a veteran English teacher at Walnut Hills High School. She has written several children's books and has traveled extensively throughout the United States sharing her message, "Lighting Flames and Dreaming Dreams."
Ms. Draper is also the 1998 Taft Museum Duncanson artist-in-residence. "The world is not the same, but our responsibility as educators has not changed," Ms. Draper said.
For students to be inspired enough to return to the classroom, they must find "something of value in what you do in his life," Ms. Draper said.
Teachers should concentrate on the positives even with the worst of students. Take the worst kid in the world and make him a hall monitor. Find out what students' needs are on the first day of school, she said.
But most of all, she wanted teachers to recognize the responsibility they have for becoming an inspiration to their students.
"We make a difference in the life of every child," Ms. Draper said.
"What you do does matter. You plant a seed. You water it. It may not grow when you have it . . ., (but) somewhere down the line those fruits will blossom."
