THEY PICKED ME!!
On Thursday morning I had just walked into my classroom and was greeting sophomore students as they were coming into my room to take their state science proficiency exam. My classroom phone rang, it almost never does. It was the Director of Test Administration from the National Spanish Exam calling to tell me that I am one of the recipients of the National Spanish Exam Study Abroad Scholarship! My students immediately noticed my expression change from "Yay, I get to proctor the science proficiency today..." to an expression of humbled excitement. The Director of Test Administration does not know this, but as soon as I hung up the phone, I sat down at the nearest desk, let my jaw hang open, took a deep breath and smiled from ear to ear. She made my day!
The last time I perused the results document from last year's National Spanish Exam I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, there are A TON of teachers that give this exam." There were literally names of HUNDREDS of Spanish teachers from across the nation. If even 25% of them apply for this scholarship, that narrows the pool to about 50 teachers (I am probably far underestimating this number). Of those 50 teachers, 4 are awarded the scholarship for which I applied. And they picked me.
As I mentioned previously, it is humbling, flattering, exciting and a HUGE honor for me to have been chosen. I certainly do not want to turn this into a rant session about how teachers are under appreciated and underpaid but I do want to say that sometimes teachers need validation. Validation that what they do for their students is appreciated and that their hard work is recognized. For me, receiving this scholarship did just that.
So, I send a HUGE thank you to the committee, to the National Spanish Exam and to Modern Language Study Abroad for selecting me. I can't wait to begin my verano madrileño!
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