Teacher Appreciation Day

Today is a very special day in a very special week. Have you sent a note today to YOUR favorite teacher? How have you honored the teacher who made the biggest impact in your life? PBS Parents offers some wonderful ideas in their SuperSisters blog for helping your children creatively honor their teachers! Take a peek by clicking here.

A mom I work with received this note from her daughter today on Facebook and I asked her if I could share it:

"You are still the most important and my first teacher. I use the caring and wisdom I learned from you every day in my teaching! What better legacy?!
                                                                                     Happy Teacher's Appreciation Day!"

While we send thank you notes and hugs and appreciation to all our classroom teachers this week and today especially, don't forget to also thank your parents who were your first teacher. If you are a parent, I hope you will take time to think about what you teach your children - directly and indirectly. Explore the PBS Parents Child Development Tracker and give yourself some praise for helping your child or children accomplish the many milestones it takes to finally reach preschool and kindergarten! Celebrate the steps along the way and make sure you thank the teachers who helped you become who you are!  (Thanks included in the picture posted above to my dad reading with his grandson, my son!)

We Appreciate You

If you subscribe to WETA's Reading Rockets eNewsletters - then you already received this... you don't... then this is for you!



This is the one time of year - separate from Christmas and last day of school - when we ALL get to really celebrate how much we appreciate teachers. Not those of us who have children in the classroom, but also those of us who work with teachers, and really anyone who wants to thank a teacher who made a difference in their lives.

Recently I have had the opportunity to reconnect with some of my former yearbook staff members through Facebook. Thankfully they were kind enough to accept my friendship offer - or pass my name along to others who they knew I would know. This couldn't be more rewarding! It is a feeling of satisfaction and pride I read through their profiles and find some have become teachers, some have become doctors, some are pursuing additional higher education. They remember my oldest two children from when they were toddlers and get to see where I am at now in education and my work with Eight and ASSET. I am as full of gratitude for them having been my students and teaching me many things about life and fun and writing as I hope they are to have had me as a teacher.

Never under estimate the power and influence you have in a young person's life... whether that person is 3 and exploring all there is about the world and books and messy crafts or whether you are helping that struggling child in 2nd grade really learn how to read despite a learning disability. Even those scary middle school kids come home from school excited about the latest science experiment they did making crystals (yes, my son at 13) and the high school students quietly admit how much they appreciate your help studying for a test (noted by Millenium High School teacher, husband). You are facing very difficult times in education in our state, and yet you are continuing to be just as valuable in the eyes of each of those students you work with, and their parents who count on you in the trenches every day.

Thank you! We appreciate you!