{"id":348555,"date":"2025-10-06T01:02:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T00:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=348555"},"modified":"2025-10-05T21:43:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:43:25","slug":"time-to-celebrate-my-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/?p=348555","title":{"rendered":"Time To Celebrate My Teacher\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
Quote:”\u00a0Not everyone gets the chance to say thank you to the teacher who made the difference. Some have moved on. Some have passed on. But their influence lives on in every book written, business started, problem solved, or student mentored by someone they once taught”<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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Every year on October 5th, the world pauses to honor a group of individuals who shape the future with nothing more than a whiteboard marker, a patient voice, and an unshakeable belief in potential: teachers. World Teachers\u2019 Day is more than just a date on the calendar\u2014it is a reminder of the quiet, powerful influence educators have in shaping lives, societies, and futures. For many, the day evokes memories of classrooms filled with chalk dust, books stacked high, and a steady presence at the front of the room guiding lessons, asking questions, and waiting\u2014always waiting\u2014for that lightbulb moment in a student\u2019s eyes. While every teacher leaves a mark, there\u2019s often one who makes a deeper impression. One who doesn\u2019t just teach but transforms. For me, that teacher was Mrs. Okoro.I met Mrs. Okoro in Junior Secondary School Two.<\/div>\n
I remember walking into her English Literature class with the usual mixture of adolescent apathy and anxiety. English had always been a subject I tolerated rather than loved. To me, it was a series of essays, comprehension passages, and exam questions about metaphors and similes that seemed more confusing than meaningful. But Mrs. Okoro didn\u2019t teach English. She lived it. She had a way of stepping into the classroom like a performer stepping onto a stage. Her voice carried energy, her expressions demanded attention, and her passion was infectious. Within weeks, I found myself looking forward to her classes\u2014not because I suddenly loved Shakespeare or Chinua Achebe, but because I saw in her someone who believed in what she was teaching, and more importantly, someone who believed in me. The beauty of an exceptional teacher lies not in how much they know, but in how deeply they care.<\/div>\n
Mrs. Okoro had an eye for those students who tried to stay invisible. I was one of them\u2014never the loudest, rarely the top of the class, often unsure of my own voice. But she noticed me. One afternoon, after returning our essays, she held mine up\u2014not to ridicule, but to read it aloud to the class. My heart pounded as she read my words, giving them life and rhythm. When she finished, she looked at me and said, \u201cThere\u2019s a writer in you. You just need to let them out.\u201dIt was the first time someone outside my family had validated my potential in such a specific, personal way. That one comment, simple as it was, sparked something in me that would never fade. From that moment, I started writing more. I filled journals with stories and poems. I volunteered to read aloud in class. I even entered a school writing competition\u2014and won.<\/div>\n
World Teachers\u2019 Day celebrates the efforts of educators around the globe who go beyond teaching curriculum to nurturing character. That was Mrs. Okoro in every sense. She taught us about empathy through literature, helping us connect to characters from different backgrounds, cultures, and histories. She encouraged debate, critical thinking, and respectful disagreement\u2014skills we would come to rely on far beyond the walls of that classroom. She also taught us grace. I remember once when a student mocked another\u2019s reading aloud. Mrs. Okoro stopped the class, not with anger, but with a calm that silenced the room. \u201cWe don\u2019t laugh at people trying,\u201d she said. \u201cTrying is where learning begins.\u201d It was a simple statement, but the dignity she afforded every student left a lasting impact. It is often said that teaching is the profession that creates all other professions.<\/div>\n
That may sound like a slogan, but it\u2019s true in the most personal of ways. Without teachers like Mrs. Okoro, I might never have found the confidence to write, to speak, or to believe that my ideas mattered. Today, I write professionally. I speak at conferences. I mentor others. But behind every achievement is the echo of a teacher who once said, \u201cThere\u2019s a writer in you.\u201d Imagine that: a single sentence, spoken in a secondary school classroom years ago, setting off a chain of events that would define the trajectory of a life. That is the power of teachers. World Teachers\u2019 Day, established by UNESCO in 1994, aims to commemorate the adoption of the 1966 ILO\/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. It is a day to advocate for the rights and responsibilities of teachers and to appreciate their essential contributions to education and development.<\/div>\n
But beyond the global observance, it is also a deeply personal day for many. It is a day to reflect on the individuals who, in their own unique ways, lit the path ahead for us when we couldn\u2019t see it ourselves. Not everyone gets the chance to say thank you to the teacher who made the difference. Some have moved on. Some have passed on. But their influence lives on in every book written, business started, problem solved, or student mentored by someone they once taught. If your teacher is still around, consider writing them a letter, sending them an email, or simply letting them know the role they played in your story. If they\u2019re not, honor them by being the kind of person they believed you could be\u2014and by supporting teachers around you who are trying to do the same for others.<\/div>\n
World Teachers\u2019 Day is not just about celebrating teachers in general, but also about recognizing your teacher\u2014the one who changed the way you saw yourself. For me, that teacher was Mrs. Okoro. Her name might not appear in the pages of history books, but in the story of my life, she\u2019s a chapter I will always return to.\u00a0 October 5, may have come and gone, it should continue to remind us of the need to celebrate our teaches, remember their words, share their impacts,\u00a0 and\u00a0 where possible, be that kind of light for someone else.<\/div>\n
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By: Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quote:”\u00a0Not everyone gets the chance to say thank you to the teacher who made the difference. Some have moved on. Some have passed on. But their influence lives on in every book written, business started, problem solved, or student mentored by someone they once taught” Every year on October 5th, the world pauses to honor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67315,"featured_media":348601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/67315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=348555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348602,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348555\/revisions\/348602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/348601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=348555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=348555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=348555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}