As a teacher, this might sound as if I’m tooting my own horn, but let me tell you why teacher appreciation week is real and so very, very APPRECIATED!
Growing up, I was a military kid (who am I kidding, I’ll always be a military kid!) who moved quite a lot. This meant that I averaged attendance at 2 schools in 2 states every year from kindergarten to 5th grade. Now some of you may think that’s crazy, but not me. This gave me a great respect for teachers across the USA. It showed me different strategies of how to teach and how to look at students as individuals who learn differently. It was a godsend during college, being that I had a plethora of ideas to grab from!
I believe being a teacher was always in my blood. I remember having a desk set up in my room to be my teacher desk. I read books within a few days and collected them for my future classroom. My friends and I created a home under a tree by my house with room for a classroom. Both of my grandpas were teachers. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered that I wanted to be a teacher. To be honest, I don’t know what else I’d do if it weren’t teaching, unless you count being a super famous singer on Broadway a potential job (even though I’ve never been in a musical before!)
Growing up, my teachers were always doing kind things for me. When I was leaving 4th grade in Mississippi to come back home to Duluth, my teacher scrounged around to give me what she could for a going away gift. What did she give me, you ask? The teacher lounge donuts! (Now, as a teacher myself, I think that was pretty brave to take treats from teachers, but in 4th grade, I thought it was amazing and felt so special.)
I had a teacher here in Duluth that encouraged the class to write… to write anything we wanted, and we were not be graded on it. This was priceless. I wrote for fun without worries, bringing out creativity he may not have seen if I had known it would be graded. Another teacher in high school “red penned” my papers so bad I hated her. However, after I started getting As on college papers pretty easily, I knew it was because of her. I ended up seeing her at a symphony concert shortly into my college career, and asked if I could give her a hug. I thanked her for challenging me and making me look twice (or three or four times!). She helped make my writing so much better.
Teachers don’t teach for the money. Shocker, I know. We teach for the love of the kids. Your kids. When we talk about our classes, you’ll hear us say “my kids…”. We love them as our own. We try to figure out how best to teach them so that they will best succeed. We change lesson plans to fit the interests of our students. For example, I have had to learn about things and master things my kids like, so that I can talk about it inside of lessons to give them a connection to what they already love. I’ve mastered ninja turtle names one year, dinosaurs another, and all the sea animals I could name.
As a mom, I also get the privilege of having teachers for my own children. I see the love they have for them in their classroom. I hear stories of what my children did at school–what was hard and what made them laugh. I get to talk to the teachers and they share with me ideas to help my kids succeed. They tell me what they feel is off and help me figure out how to “fix” it. They also share the amazing things my kids do while not with me and how proud they are of them. I get to feel relaxed as my kids leave me for their own classrooms, knowing they will be taken care of and loved.
It is not easy being a mom. It is not easy being a teacher. In many ways the jobs are similar, but in many other ways they are so different. One thing is for sure, we both love those babies, even if they are taller than us, or soon will be.
Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4-8th so be sure to give a little extra love to the teachers in your life. It means so much to know we are a team, and to know you appreciate what we do.
