Every year on October 5th, teachers around the world get a little extra appreciation.

Launched in 1994 by UNESCO, World Teachers' Day aims to strengthen support for teachers across the globe and ensure that they can continue to meet the needs of future generations of students.

World Teachers' Day is observed by over 100 countries worldwide, and according to UNESCO, this day represents, "a significant token of the awareness, understanding and appreciation displayed for the vital contribution that teachers make to education and development."

Teachers arguably have one of the the most challenging jobs out there. It's not glamorous, and requires unimaginable amounts of patience, discipline and empathy.

Take a minute today to thank a teacher from your past (or present!) for all the hard work that they do!

In honor of World Teachers' Day, our team at Noodle decided to share some of our best memories of teachers that have inspired and motivated us over the years:

"My high school biology teacher Ms. Fields is the reason that I decided to study computer science. She had this amazing class, and instead of doing homework I got to build the class website. We were the first high school in the country to have a biology website. And from there I got an internship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Washington D.C.. It was with some of the interns I met there that I started my first design firm in, while I was still in high school. So without her encouragement, I probably wouldn't be working in the field that I am today."

Kyle Jaster, VP of Product

"All my life, I had really liked math...until I encountered advanced calculus in 9th grade. It stumped me, I hated it, and it hated me, evidenced by my near failing grade in the midterm. But, I had this incredibly amazing teacher, Mrs. Schreibman, who worked with me every single lunch period of the week and every single afternoon after school. She miraculously got me to the top of the class, but more importantly, she reinstated my confidence in my ability to conquer whatever I set my mind to."

Sehreen NoorAli, Director of Partnerships

"My mother was a New York City public school teacher for 30 years. Her dedication to her students and practice inspired me to also contribute to the field of education in some way, shape or form."

Laura London Director of Operations, PreK-20

"A computer science teacher at college taught us that we should not treat a job as the endpoint of our education. He taught us that we should treat it more as a stepping stone along a path to continually improving our skills. He taught me the simple understanding that learning was not finished when you graduated from school, but that we should always strive to improve ourselves in whatever career we chose."

Nicolas Stephens, Scrum Master

"From kindergarten through sixth grade, I went to a French immersion elementary school. Thanks to an amazingly creative and hardworking team of teachers, I managed to become fluent in a foreign language by the time I was 10 years old, and I don't even remember how I did it. My first grade teacher Mme Toussaint invited my whole class to her wedding, and I still remember the words to nearly all the songs my fourth grade teacher, Mme Salamon, taught us. It was was arguably the most influential educational experience in my lifetime, and only made me further appreciate the power of dedicated teachers and a good public school system."

Carolyn Englar, Content Strategist

"My senior year of high school was defined by a husband and wife pair of teachers. The mister taught AP English and instilled in me a lifelong love of Hamlet and appreciation for Shakespeare. The missus taught BC Calculus and instilled in me a healthy respect for proofs, sequences and series.

Incidentally, the weird synthesis of literature and math reappeared a few years later in the oddball antics of an economics professor who would describe Hamlet as the "ideal Bayesian," referred ironically to money as "filthy lucre," and discussed the Kaldor-Hicks efficiency of Nabokov's destruction of his own manuscripts. The path that began in high school sank me far deeper into hardcore nerddom than I could ever have imagined. I think on balance it has greatly enriched my life.

'Tis not alone integral and differential calculus, good teacher

Nor customary proofs of deltas and epsilons

Nor windy suspirations of fundamental theorems

.... that can denote me truly These indeed 'seem,'

For they are actions that a man might play.

But I have that within which passeth show,

These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

Why didn't I think of that while I was in high school?"

Charles Wang Jr. Data Scientist**

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