The Secret Power of Your High School Yearbook - Smarter Every Day 284

This is great, I’m trying to reach out to one of my teachers!

Jason Method

Do it now! I’m pushing 80 so my teachers and mentors are gone. Don’t wait.

Fred S

As an 8th grade teacher... I LOVE this. Teachers typically are motivated by having an effect on the future. Junior high is an in-between age, and not a lot of "glamorous" memories are filed away in those grades, but when a student does come back & can explicitly recall a moment of appreciation, it makes a lot of the hard stuff of the job melt away a little. I'm sure you have an idea of it, but each of those people you met went home and really glowed that evening. I got choked up a couple months ago when a driver ed student I had last summer came back & showed me his drivers license and thanked me for my help in getting it. He was beaming, and it still makes me smile thinking about it. Whether it is a student thanking a teacher, or just one person ton another, the power of showing true appreciation for what someone has done for you is powerful, and we each should look for the opportunity to do so. What a great undertaking and video. Thank you, sir.

Excellent video, and I envy your ability to recall specifics as far back as you have (we're about the same age.) Watching this made me immediately think of several teachers I've had from around fifth grade all the way through grad school. A few off the top of my head are my sophomore English teacher who sent home a report card (that I still have) that checked both "disruptive to class" and "pleasure to have in class", my senior year gym teacher who put in the effort to create an outdoor adventure/rock-climbing/team-building class that taught me so many "soft skills", and my grad school professor in antenna theory who, a decade later, I ended up responsible for buying an antenna from for a space mission and checking -his- work :).

Ryan Simpson

Lucky you have the opportunity to thank your teachers. I left mine on a different continent and tried to find them via social media to thank them but no luck, but as you say one would not be here without them

Farid Aziz

Meaningful and heartwarming feels simply watching this! When I made my Project for Awesome video about DonorsChoose one year I made it a deep dive gratitude video to thank my teachers and it supercharged my gratitude by better seeing how so many diversely invested in me and my passions and life skills. I can count more than all my fingers and toes.

Matthew J Palka

Love this video, I think everyone can think of at least one teacher who changed their life for the better. For me it was Mrs Gordon and Mr, Mitchell.

Such an important video.. This hits home to me because I had one teacher that I probably would not have completed high school without. I hated high school because I was so shy.. I even failed English one year because I refused to get up in front of the class to read a speech I had written, just out of shyness even though I was completely prepared, speech in hand. What saved me was my BAND teacher of all people. I probably would have dropped out of school if not for my love of my band and music theory classes. . I had always thought "someday I will find her and contact her again and say "thank you" but I recently found out that she died a few years ago (I graduated in '86) so I encourage people to take Destin's lead and say thanks while you still can. There was a very special science teacher in my Jr High that I actually by chance reconnected with because I ended up working with his wife, and that was awesome. I wish I had attempted more connections like this. My wife is a speech therapist in an elementary school in our small town and whenever we're out and she sees an old student, they always love to talk to her and it means so much to her. I can't tell you how many times we'll be sitting in a quiet restaurant in town when I hear a little voice from across the room yell "MRS JONES.. HI!!" and come over and have a conversation with the student and their parents. Thanks Destin... I know you made your teachers happy with this one!!

Steve Jones

great video 🇺🇸

Mrgunsngear

Thanks for this! I have thanked one teacher in person for a particularly pivotal day in my life, but I can think of so many more things for which to be thankful. And this is my 40th reunion year for high school (I can't believe I just wrote that!) so it's a good time to spread the love.

Thomas Maufer