Teachers: NPR Wants to Share Your Story

The sun was rising. The sky was a peaceful yellow. NPR made my morning start off right. I was on the way to work and heard a story which inspired me to act.The story was about a Georgia couple – both teachers – and how the husband used playground sports to encourage friendship and learning among his students during recess. [You can hear the full story here.] It ended with a call-to-action from NPR’s StoryCorps… “Do you have a special teacher in your life? Come into StoryCorps to interview. We’d love to share your story as part of our National Teachers Initiative.”

I know firsthand that these stories are worth telling. Recently, I have spent time following a number of teachers across the country – and from around the world – as I produce mini-documentaries about the ways that Better World Books supports their extra efforts in giving their students the best education possible. These teachers work 18 hours a day. They often don’t have a chance to take a bathroom or lunch break. They pour their hearts into their students and pull energy out from their toenails to serve. Here’s a blog I wrote after my latest film shoot in California.

I took StoryCorp’s call-to-action to heart and contacted them to see how Better World Books could help. It turns out that what StoryCorps needs most of all, is for more people to share their stories. Their current focus is the National Teachers Initiative and it is now my goal to get all of our amazing teacher-donors, teacher-customers, teacher-readers, teacher-fans and teacher-partners to share their stories of struggle and success in teaching with StoryCorps.

Here’s what you need to know: From StoryCorps.org

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.

StoryCorps interviews are featured every Friday on NPR’s Morning Edition.

The National Teachers Initiative celebrates the brilliant and courageous work of at least 625 public school teachers across the country. By recording, sharing, and preserving their stories, we hope to call public attention to the invaluable contributions teachers have made to this nation, honor those who have embraced the profession as their calling, encourage teaching as a career choice, and unify the country behind its teachers—helping us all recognize that there is no more important or noble work than that of educating our nation’s children. The National Teachers Initiative will place special attention on the work of teachers striving to increase the number of students who graduate prepared for college and careers.

Inspired to act? Act here: sign up to share your teacher story and share this post with your favorite teacher!

Has a news story or book ever inspired you to act? We’d love to hear about it! What about all you wonderful teachers and students out there, will you join NPR’s National Teacher Initiative? Please tell us your stories too!

PS: StoryCorps Founder Dave Isay has published a few remarkable books based on StoryCorps stories and mission.