Close your eyes and imagine your favorite teacher. What qualities did he or she possess? Why was he or she your favorite teacher?

My mind immediately flashes back to my teacher Miss McLaughlin. While she may have been a family friend, she was more than that to me. She could make me laugh and smile; she made me work harder and think deeper; she even taught me life-long skills I never knew I would use today. She was my change agent, and it is because of her my passion for teaching has developed.

More than likely, your memorable teacher changed you in one way or another. That teacher was your change agent. Now, here we teach, impacting the future every day. Yet, how many of you see yourselves as change agents in your students’ lives? We may change one student or we may change a whole class.

More importantly, we have that power to change—that power to not only change ourselves but also our students for the better. John Hattie (2009) mentions that one must believe with the “mindset that we can affect change” (p. 6).  Do you reflect this mindset? He simply states that our role as a teacher is just that—to affect change.

So I challenge you to think about the students you interact with on a daily basis. How can you add that sparkle to their lives? How can you put that smile on their faces? How can you flip that switch so they experience that ah-ha moment in your classroom?

In the end, no matter the frustrations or distractions in your chaotic day, what did you do to affect change in your students? How were you a change agent in a student’s life?

Zegarac, G. (2013). Know Thy Impact: Teaching, Learning and Leading.In Conversation , IV (2), 18.