Teachers... you may have heard this classic story written by Loren Eiseley. We are connecting it back to teachers and teaching. As there is a fantastic message hidden in it for us.
Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions. At a distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching. As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea. As the boy came closer and the old man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?” The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” he replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.” The old man replied, “But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.” The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that Starfish!”

The Starfish Message for Teachers..
An overwhelmed Teacher could ask, "how much of a difference can I really make?” Whenever this question pops up during teaching… remember this story. You might not be able to change all the underachieving students in the classroom, but at least you can change some of them.